Missiles: India
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The long-delayed BMD system, which needs an overlapping network of earlywarning and tracking sensors, reliable command and control posts, land and seabased batteries of advanced interceptor missiles, will take at least two years to be ready for deployment to protect a city or strategic installation. | The long-delayed BMD system, which needs an overlapping network of earlywarning and tracking sensors, reliable command and control posts, land and seabased batteries of advanced interceptor missiles, will take at least two years to be ready for deployment to protect a city or strategic installation. | ||
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| + | == Two layered missile shield == | ||
| + | [http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/index-defence-missile-pullquote-ncw-yogendra-yadav/1/885735.html India Today , Security Blanket “India Today” 27/2/2017] | ||
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| + | [[File: Two layered missile shield .jpg| Two layered missile shield |frame|500px]] | ||
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| + | LRTR (Long Range Tracking Radar): Can detect incoming ballistic missiles 600 km away. Intercepting 5,000 kmrange IRBMs requires LRTRs that can detect incoming missiles at ranges of 1,500 km | ||
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| + | PAD (Exo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept medium range ballistic missiles up to 100 km altitude. Successful test carried out on February 11; intercepted target 97 km away | ||
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| + | AAD (Endo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept short-range ballistic missiles upto 30 km altitude. 12 tests till date | ||
=Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs)= | =Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs)= | ||
Revision as of 00:17, 31 May 2017
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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Ballistic missile defence (BMD) system
2017: high-altitude interceptor missile tested
Only 4 Nations Possess This Technology as in February 2017
India took a big step towards an operational two-tier ballistic missile defence (BMD) system by testing a high-altitude interceptor missile to destroy an incoming ballistic missile over the Bay of Bengal.
“Today our scientists have made a missile that can destroy an enemy missile high in the sky . Only four to five countries in the world have done this,“ said PM Narendra Modi at an election rally in Badaun.He even took a dig at his political opponents, holding that they would have to travel “very high“ if they wanted proof of the successful test.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was itself gung-ho about its long-delayed BMD system, claiming it would now be possible to deploy the two-layered missile shield to protect a city or strategic installation in two years.
But it had earlier also promised that New Delhi would get the missile shield, capable of tackling missiles with a 2,000km strike range, by 2014 at the latest. Scientists, however, say they are confident of achieving the target this time.
The “exo-atmospheric“ (outside the earth's atmosphere) interceptor missile tested on Saturday , also called the PDV (Prithvi defence vehicle), after all, directly hit the target missile at an altitude of 97km. The test began at 7.45am with the two-stage target missile, mimicking an enemy ballistic missile, being launched from a ship in the Bay of Bengal.
In the fully-automated operation, with long-range radars continuously tracking the target and feeding data about its trajectory to the mission computers, the interceptor missile was then fired from the Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island), off Odisha coast, around 200km away .
“It was a direct hit. Many advanced technologies developed indigenously paved the way for the successful interception. It's a remarkable achievement for the country ,“ said the defence minister's scientific adviser Dr G Satheesh Reddy .
The defence ministry added: “India has crossed an important milestone in building its overall capability towards enhanced security against incoming ballistic missile threats. It has entered an exclusive club of four nations (US, Russia, China and Israel) by developing capabilities to secure its skies and cities against hostile threats.“
BMD systems, of course, are highly complex to develop and deploy (see graphic).
DRDO's experimental two-tier system is designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere. A third layer, in turn, is planned to tackle lowflying cruise missiles, artillery projectiles and rockets in line with the overall aim to achieve “near 100% kill or interception probability.
Low-Altitude Interceptor Missile successfully tested, March 2017
Desi Star Wars shield comes another step closer to reality, March 2, 2017: The Times of India
DRDO Successfully Tests Low-Altitude Interceptor Missile
In yet another step towards an operational two-tier ballistic missile defence (BMD) system, India tested on Wednesday a lowaltitude interceptor missile to destroy an incoming ballistic missile over the Bay of Bengal.
The DRDO had tested a high-altitude interceptor missile on February 11 as part of the experimental BMD system, which is designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere for a higher “kill“ probability .
While the test in February involved the “exo-atmospheric“ interceptor missile hitting the target at an altitude of 97 km, the test-firing on March 1, 2017 was against an incoming missile at 15km altitude.
Defence officials said the interceptor missile fired from the Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island) off Odisha coast “successfully destroyed“ the incoming “ene my“ Prithvi missile, which was launched from the integrated test range at Chandipur, at 10.15 am. “All the mission objectives were successfully met. The weapon system radars tracked the target and provided the initial guid ance to the interceptor, which could precisely home in on the target and destroyed it in the endo-atmospheric layer. The complete event, including the engagement and destruction, was tracked by a number of electro-optical tracking systems using infrared imagery . Radars and telemetry stations tracked the target and the interceptor till the destruction of the target,“ the defence ministry said in a statement.
The long-delayed BMD system, which needs an overlapping network of earlywarning and tracking sensors, reliable command and control posts, land and seabased batteries of advanced interceptor missiles, will take at least two years to be ready for deployment to protect a city or strategic installation.
Two layered missile shield
India Today , Security Blanket “India Today” 27/2/2017
LRTR (Long Range Tracking Radar): Can detect incoming ballistic missiles 600 km away. Intercepting 5,000 kmrange IRBMs requires LRTRs that can detect incoming missiles at ranges of 1,500 km
PAD (Exo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept medium range ballistic missiles up to 100 km altitude. Successful test carried out on February 11; intercepted target 97 km away
AAD (Endo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept short-range ballistic missiles upto 30 km altitude. 12 tests till date
Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs)
Agni V
Rajat Pandit, Agni-V with China tested in December 2016, Dec 27 2016 : The Times of India
Agni-V , India's most formidable missile with a range of over 5,000 km, is now ready for user trials by the military after it underwent its fourth and final test-firing from the integrated test range off the Odisha coast.
The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), dubbed a “game-changer“ in strategic deterrence because it brings the whole of China and much more within its strike envelope, was fired from its canister on a launcher truck just after 11am.
Powered by three-stage rocket motors, the 50-tonne missile tore into space to a height of 500 km before following its predetermined flight-path to the “splash point“ in southern Indian Ocean 20 minutes later. President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi congratulated DRDO. The Agni-V test, monitored by radars and tracking systems, met all the mission objectives. The country has achieved a very high-level of self-reliance in missile technologies,“ said the defence minister's scientific adviser G Satheesh Reddy . Defence minister Manohar Parrikar, among others, congratulated DRDO scientists for the “successful“ test-firing of Agni-V , which is designed to carry a 1.5-tonne nucleartipped warhead.
TOI was the first to re port in its December 14 edition the impending test of Agni-V , which will now undergo at least two user-trials by the tri-service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) be fore full-scale production and induction.
The missile's canisterlaunch final operational version is significant because it gives the armed forces the requisite operational flexibility to swiftly transport and launch the missile from wherever they want within a matter of minutes. The hermetically-sealed canister gives the missile higher reliability , enhanced mobility, less maintenance and longer shelf-life. Some more fireworks are likely again over the Bay of Bengal when SFC conducts user-trials of the 4,000-km Agni-IV , which is also designed with China in mind, in the first week of January. Apart from the shorterrange Prithvi and Dhanush missiles, SFC has inducted the Agni-I (700km), Agni-II (2,000km) and Agni-III (3,000km) missiles till now.
Also in the works is AgniVI, which will be armed with “manoeuvring warheads or intelligent re-entry vehicles“ to defeat enemy defence systems or MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles). An MIRV payload basically means a single missile is capable of carrying several nuclear warheads, each programmed to hit different targets.
N-capable Nirbhay missile
2016: fails test for fourth time
N-capable Nirbhay missile fails test for fourth time in Dec 2016, Dec 22, 2016: The Times of India
The much-touted `Nirbhay' land-attack cruise missile, designed to carry nuclear warheads to a strike range of 1,000km, failed on Wednesday . This was the subsonic missile's fourth test since March 2013, all of which have more or less failed to achieve test parameters.
The missile had to be destroyed in mid-air after it deviated from its flight path along the coast in Bay of Bengal soon after launch from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore off the Odisha coast around noon on Wednesday . “The test was an utter failure, with the missile veering to the right within two minutes of take-off,“ said a source.
While the missile's first test in March 2013 had completely failed, the second one was dubbed a “partial success“ in October 2014. But the third test in Oc tober 2015 and the one on Wednesday failed miserably .
The DRDO may have come a long way in developing ballistic missiles like the Agni series, which have strike ranges from 700 km to over 5,000 km, but it continues to flounder in the field of cruise missiles. The armed forces already have the supersonic BrahMos missiles but they have been developed with the help of Russia, have a range of only 290 km as of now and carry only conventional warheads.
The Nirbhay , a stealth missile in the making for almost a decade now, was meant to fulfil the armed forces' demand for nuclear-tipped land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) versatile enough to be fired from land, air and sea. The missile was said to be a counter to Pakistan's `Babur' LACM.The real big test for the DRDO will be the impending fourth test of the Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, with a strike range of over 5,000 km, in its final operational configuration from the Wheeler Island off Odisha.
Surface-to-air missiles (SAMs)
MR-SAM with multifunction surveillance and threat alert radars
The Times of India, Jul 01, 2016
Rajat Pandit
India took a major step towards plugging some gaping holes in its air defence coverage with the maiden test of a new surface-to-air missile (SAM) system designed to detect, track and destroy hostile aircraft, missiles, helicopters and drones at a range of 70km. The medium-range SAM system, jointly developed by DRDO and Israeli Aerospace Industries, was tested twice against a Britishorigin target drone `Banshee' at the integrated test range at Chandipur-on-sea off the coast of Odisha. The MR-SAM systems with their MF-STARs (multifunction surveillance and threat alert radars) as well as weapon control systems with data links are designed to neutralise multiple targets simultaneously .
IAF will begin inducting an initial nine squadrons of this land-based MR-SAM -at a cost of Rs 10,076 crore -from 2017-18 onwards.
“During the two tests on Thursday, first at 8.15am and then at 3.45pm, the interceptor missiles directly hit the manoeuvring target drones (mimicking enemy aircraft), destroying them. All mission objectives were met successfully,“ Dr G Satheesh Reddy , scientific advisor to the defence minister, told TOI.
While two “profiles“ at different altitudes in the flight envelope were tested on Thursday , the MR-SAM will require a few more tests before its production can kick off next year. While Israel calls the system Barak-8, India is yet to officially name it.
The Navy , incidentally , has already equipped three of its latest Kolkata-class destroyers with the warshipbased version of the MRSAM. The all-weather air defence system, which is being produced by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics (BDL), has also been earmarked for another 12 under-construction warships, including the 40,000-tonne aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
