Mighty India Power

Ocean's 5: An overview on underwater nuclear missiles Ever since the first submarine-launched missiles were fired by the Germans in World War-II, underwater missiles have remained weaopns of high strategic importance. Unlike thier aerial and terresterial counterparts, underwater nuclear missiles are not prone to the first strikes of the enemy, which makes them a tremendously potent proposition. A Tomahawk cruise missile is seen emerging from the ocean after being launched from the USS Florida, a 560-foot missile submarine based out of Norfolk. The era of the Cold War witnessed the Americans and Russians making enormous investments in nuclear science research. Significant breakthroughs were made in the field of underwater nuclear missiles during this time. Later, other superpowers and emerging superpowers followed suit and joined the race. Now, with the development of Shaurya, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead over a distance of 750 kms, India too have made its own...

The country’s top defence scientist has, for the first time, revealed that India’s new Shaurya missile, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead over 750 kilometers, is specially designed to be fired from Indian submarines and could form the crucial third leg of India’s nuclear deterrent. If launched from a submarine off the China coast, it could hit several Chinese cities like Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai. Air and land-based nuclear weapons are delivered to their targets by fighter aircraft and ballistic missiles, respectively. Since these can be knocked out by an enemy first strike, the most reliable nuclear deterrent has traditionally been underwater, missiles hidden in a submarine. V K Saraswat, the DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, revealed to Business Standard at the ongoing Defexpo 2010, “We have designed the Shaurya so that it can be launched from under water as easily as from land. The gas-filled canister that houses the missile fits easily i...

Missile Overview Introduction India views its nuclear weapons and long-range power projection programs as the key to maintaining strategic stability in the Asia-Pacific region, deterring Pakistan, safeguarding against potential nuclear threats from China, and attaining great-power status. India's strategic missile programs have matured to the extent that New Delhi can now deploy short- and medium-range nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles in an operational mode against Pakistan and China. Four decades of investments in a missile-related design, development, and manufacturing infrastructure have also made this sector less vulnerable to long-term disruption by technology denial regimes. More significantly, India's sophisticated civilian satellite launch capability makes it one of the few developing states theoretically capable of building anintercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)[1] India continues its wide-ranging pursuit of ballistic and cruise missile capabilities. It car...

India today said it will testfire the over 5,000km range nuclear-capable Agni-V surface to surface ballistic missile "within a year", enabling it to bring all the possible targets in China and Pakistan within its striking radius. The test-firing of the Agni-V missile will also help India to join the elite club on nations with the capability to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), DRDO chief VK Saraswat said here. "Agni-V is a 5,000 km plus missile in the ICBM category and we are planning to carry out its first test within a year," he told reporters here. Saraswat said, "after Agni III and Agni V, as far as cities in China and Pakistan are concerned, there will be no target that we want to hit but can't hit." Comparing the Agni-III with Chinese 2,500km range DF-21 and DF-25, Agni programme Director Avinash Chander said in terms of "accuracy and technology-wise", the indigenous missiles were better than the ones in the ...

India is going to put up an eye in the sky to boost its military intelligence. The spycraft, called the Communication-Centric Intelligence Satellite (CCI-Sat), will be operational by 2014 and will keep a watch on the trouble spots in the neighbourhood, especially China and Pakistan. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the CCI-Sat is India’s first original spy satellite. It will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation within the next four years. The CCI-Sat is capable of picking images and supporting communication (conversation between two satellite phones, for instance), besides surveillance. “The satellite will orbit Earth at an altitude of 500km and will cover hostile regions in India’s neighbourhood by passing on the surveillance data to the intelligence,” said G Bhoopathy, the director of the Defence Electronic Research Laboratory (DLRL), the lab that is working on the satellite. “The focus is now space, we have to equip oursel...

India is set to develop a dedicated network-centric communication intelligence satellite for detecting conversations and espionage activities in the region, a top defence scientist said on Tuesday. “We are in the process of designing and developing a spacecraft fitted with an intelligent sensor that will pick up conversations and communications across the borders,” Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) director G. Bhoopathy told reporters here. The Rs.100 crore satellite will be developed in partnership with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and launched in the lower earth orbit — about 500 km above the earth — on board the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km north-east of Chennai. “The satellite fitted with the electronic sensor will be more powerful than the remote sensing satellites (IRSA) of ISRO. The spacecraft should be ready for launch by 2014,” Mr. Bhoopathy said on the margins of a preview o...

India today "successfully" test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of more than 3,000 km from the Wheeler Island off Orissa coast. The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was tested from a rail mobile launcher near Dhamara, about 100 km from here, at about 1046 hours, defence sources said. "All mission parameters were met," they said, adding the test was a success. This was the fourth flight test in the Agni-III series carried out to establish the "repeatability" of the missile's performance, they said. The entire trajectory of today's trial was monitored through various telemetry stations, electro-optic systems and sophisticated radars located along the coast, in Port Blair and by Naval ships anchored near the impact point in the down range area for data analysis, the sources said. Agni-III missile is powered by a two-stage solid propellant system.

ISRO is planning to launch India's indigenous satellite for mobiles communication by 2011. Satellite phones or ‘sat phones’ are very much useful and popular in remote places in which terrestrial cellular service are not available. People can use satphone without using cellular broadcasting tower. All they need to use the satellite phone is a clear line to the sky by that the users can attend the calls from anywhere. For instance, the users can operate satellite phones either in the core of desert Sahara or at the depth of thick South African Jungle or at the top of Mount Everest. In short, satphones deliver a stable communication both in air and in sea. So far India is not owning satellite and the Indians are getting access for the ir satellite phones only from foreign satellite services. Last Monday (1st February 2010) a senior space scientist from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said that they are under the process of building a high-beam antenna in order to fix t...

India's Arjun tank will battle for its life against a squadron of Russian T-90s in trials likely to determine the controversial vehicle's future. The long-awaited trials, which start in March, will pit the 14 indigenous Arjuns against the 14 T-90s, day and night for a month, according to the national Business Standard newspaper. The 24th Infantry Division stationed in Bikaner will conduct the trials in the rugged deserts of the northern state of Rajasthan, around the cities of Bikaner, Suratgarh and also Pokhran, the site of India's first nuclear bomb test in May 1974. The performance of tanks and their crews will be monitored. Vehicle speed, accuracy in firing while on the move, ability to operate over long distances and fatigue on crews will be observed, the Business Standard article said. Media reports last fall said the army had purchased an initial 124 Arjuns and was considering it as a replacement for "hundreds" of its T-90s. More than 390 T-90s were...

An installation test flight of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is scheduled to take place this year in the Baltic Sea from a stealth frigate being built for the Indian Navy at Kaliningrad in Russia, A. Sivathanu Pillai, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, BrahMos Aerospace Limited, said on Tuesday. The missile’s vertical launcher and fire control system, made in India, was transported to Kaliningrad and fitted into the stealth frigate, a Talwar-class ship. Dr. Pillai disclosed this when Russian National Security Advisor Nikolai Patroshev, along with Ambassador Alexander Kadakin, visited the BrahMos Complex in New Delhi. The BrahMos missile is a joint product of India and Russia and it has already been inducted into the Indian Navy and Army. Patroshev is all praise Mr. Patroshev, who is leading a high-level delegation, lauded the development of the BrahMos as a remarkable achievement made in a short time. “The joint venture BrahMos is a bright illustration of ...

Intense preparations are under way on the tiny Wheeler Island, off Damra village on the Orissa coast, for the launch of ballistic missile Agni-III before Sunday. This will be the fourth launch of Agni-III and it aims at establishing its reliability. “We are doing this flight to demonstrate the robustness of the missile’s systems,” a top missile engineer of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said on Wednesday. Agni-III, a product of the DRDO, can carry nuclear warheads weighing 1.5 tonnes. It can fly over 3,500 km and even target parts of China. The missile has two stages which are powered by solid propellants. It is 17-metre long, has a diameter of two metres and launch weight of 50 tonnes. The missile re-enters the atmosphere with a high velocity at a temperature of more than 2,500 degrees Celsius. The nuclear warhead is protected by a heat-shield made of carbon-carbon composites. While the first Agni-III launch on July 9, 2006 failed, the second and third ...

India's fleet of Su-30MKI Flanker-H fighter jets could be armed with BrahMos missiles by 2012, the vice president of the Irkut Corporation said at the Singapore Airshow 2010. The corporation is a prime contractor in manufacturing the Su-30MKI multi-role fighters for the Indian Air Force. Its share of Russia's arms exports is 15 per cent. "The modernisation programme includes re-equipping of some 100 Su-30MKI fighters, which are currently in service with the Indian Air Force," Vladimir Sautov said Thursday. "It is being carried out by the Rosoboronexport, the Sukhoi Design Bureau and NPO Mashinostroyeniya. If things go well, we may offer modernized Su-30MKI fighters to our other foreign partners as soon as 2012," he added. The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. It can effectively engage ground targets from an altitude as low as 10 meters and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three time...

The China-specific nuclear capable missile Agni III will be flight-tested any time between February 6 and 8. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is planning to conduct the test at the Inner Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast. Sources at the defence base in Chandipur said the surface-tosurface missile, with a strike range of about 3,500 km, would be test-fired in full operational stage. “Massive preparation is on with more than a hundred scientists camping at the test range. The first test of the missile in 2006 was a failure, though its second trial in 2007 and third in 2008 were successful. Its proposed trial in 2009 was put off for unknown reasons,” the source added. Agni-III is a new system and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. It will be propelled by solid fuels, facilitating swifter deployment compared to missiles using both solid and liquid fuels. “The ballistic missile will require two or three more tests before it can go for limited s...