Mighty India Power

India may soon roll out satellite -assisted navigation services in collaboration with Russia's NIS-GLONASS. The two countries, after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin, today signed a memorandum of understanding for conducting the proof of concept through pilot project for providing the satellite-based navigation services. The MoU envisages a pilot project to assess the usage of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)using the capabilities of BSNL/MTNL ground infrastructure. The three-way partnership document was signed by R K Upadhyay, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., A K Garg, Chairman & Managing Director, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam LtdBSE -1.99 % and Alexander Chub, Director-General, OAO Navigation and Information Systems. "Success of the pilot project may provide insights for wider applicability of GLONASS signals in the future in areas such as disaster management, telepho...

Next month, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will attempt to shoot down an incoming “enemy” ballistic missile in outer space, well before it enters the earth’s atmosphere. DRDO chief V K Saraswat has told Business Standard a newly developed Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) interceptor missile is to be launched from Wheeler Island (off Odisha’s coast, 150 km from Bhubaneswar), travelling 110-150 km into space, where it will destroy an incoming missile, fired earlier from a naval warship in the Bay of Bengal. This comes on the heels of the DRDO’s successful November 23 test of its Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, which destroyed an incoming target missile at an altitude of 15 km. Together, the AAD and the PDV missiles, with their radars and control centres, will form a two-layered anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defence system to protect strategic targets such as Delhi by 2013-14. While the AAD missile performs endo-atmospheric (inside-the-atmosphe...

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on Thursday announced it had successfully carried out the maiden flight of the avionics upgraded Jaguar aircraft ‘Darin III’. “This is a significant moment for us as the upgrade will result in major operational improvement with regard to all-weather air-to-ground, air-to-sea and air-to-air capabilities through the incorporation of the multi-mode radar,” said R K Tyagi, Chairman, HAL. Darin III upgrade, with re-engining and its change over to higher capacity alternators can make Jaguar one of the most potent aircraft in the arsenal of the IAF with an extended life-span. The total design from system requirement capture, specification preparation, software, hardware, electrical, mechanical design and development has been done indigenously by the HAL at its Mission & Combat System Research & Design Centre (MCSRDC) and aircraft trial modification is done by HAL’s overhaul division. The fleet compliance will also be carried out by HAL. SDI...

India on Friday demonstrated its capability to intercept multiple missile attacks that will help it build a missile defence shield for the National Capital Region by 2014. The feat was achieved after scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation intercepted a real ballistic missile as well as a computer-simulated missile off the coast of Orissa. During Friday’s test, a real interceptor almost simultaneously destroyed an incoming target missile in endo-atmosphere (inside Earth’s atmosphere), 14.5 km over the Bay of Bengal, and a computer-simulated missile in exo-atmosphere (outside Earth’s atmosphere), over an altitude of 120 km. The test was overseen by DRDO Chief V K Saraswat, who has been piloting the project to develop an indigenous missile shield. After the test firing, the DRDO said that it was in the position to set up a missile shield for the National Capital Region as early as 2014, but maintained that a few more tests need to be conducted. DRDO spoke...

Enhancing lethality of its fire power, the Navy today successfully test-fired a highly- manoeuvrable version of the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a warship off the Goa coast. “The cruise missile was test-fired from guided missile frigate INS Teg—the Indian Navy’s latest induction from Russia off the coast of Goa early this morning,” sources told PTI. The missile, which was fired without a warhead, hit the target ship after performing intricate manoeuvres, they said. It had a deep penetration on the target, which caught fire, they said. The weapon did not take a straight attack path and kept turning around before hitting the target and this capability will make it difficult for the enemy to locate the Indian warships during operations, the sources said. INS Teg, which has been built at the Yantar shipyard in Russia, had fired the missile successfully during its pre-induction trials in Russia last year. The two remaining warships of the project namely IN...

  Dhanush, the India’s 350 km range Surface-to-Surface ballistic missile was successfully launched at 11:25 A.M on 5th october 2012 from a naval ship off the coast of Balasore, Odisha. The missile was launched by India’s strategic forces command. It was a text book launch meeting all the mission objectives. Dhanush, developed by DRDO, is India’s short range (350 km range) strategic ballistic missile capable of being launched from naval ships. Similar in features to Prithvi, the 9-metre tall single-staged liquid fuelled missile is capable of carrying warhead of 500 kg to a distance of 350 kg can be launched from naval ships. Equipped with a high accuracy inertial navigation system with sophisticated on-board control and guidance, Dhanush has ability to hit sea and shore based enemy targets with great precision. "It was a text book launch meeting all the mission objectives," Ravi Kumar Gupta, director, Defence Research Development Organisation, said after the succes...

Taking another step towards meeting the shortfall of transponders for satellite TV and other communication needs, the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) launched GSAT-10 from French Guiana on Saturday. The 3,400-kg GSAT-10, India’s heaviest satellite till date, was launched on an Ariane-5 rocket and carried 30 communication transponders. ISRO’s master control centre at Hassan in Karnataka will manoeuvre it in its final geo-stationary orbit, alongside Insat-4A and the GSAT-12, over the next few days. GSAT-10 is the ninth Indian communication satellite in space. “After a smooth countdown lasting 11 hours and 30 minutes, the Ariane-5 launch vehicle lifted off right on schedule. After a flight of 30 minutes and 45 seconds, GSAT-10 was injected into an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, very close to the intended one,” ISRO said after the launch. “Preliminary checks on various subsystems of the satellite were performed and all parameters were found satisfactory. Following...

The Indian Space Research Organisation is gearing up to launch 58 missions in the next five years, informed ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan. In a press conference held here on Monday to discuss ISRO’s future plans, Radhakrishnan said two of the future missions would be commercial. “India’s first 50 space missions were achieved in 27 years and the next 50 in 10 years -- between 2002 and 2012. Our aim now is to undertake 58 missions in five years,” he said. Radhakrishnan said the budget for the current year was Rs 6,700 crore, 36 per cent of which would be allocated for launch vehicles, 55 per cent for communication, remote sensing and navigation satellites and 9 per cent for science missions like Astrosat, Mars Orbiter and Aditya. He said the missions would include PSLV C20 with Saral satellite, which would be assembled in 20 days at Sri Harikota with the tentative launch date fixed for December 12. GSAT 7 and INSAT 3D, which were communications and meteorology satellites, were almost c...

  The telecom ministry has drawn up an ambitious blueprint to build a supercomputer by 2017, which will be at least 61 times faster than any machine available on Monday. Telecom and information technology minister Kapil Sibal has written to PM Manmohan Singh about the project, which is estimated to cost Rs. 4,700 crore over the next five years. But in order to succeed, the scientists behind the project will need to defy predictions of experts across the world that the computing speeds Sibal has promised are impossible any time in the near future. "In his (Sibal's) letter, he has said that C-DAC has developed a proposal with a roadmap to develop a petaflop and exaflop range of supercomputers in the country with an outlay of Rs. 4,700 crore," a government official said, referring to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) which built India's first supercomputer, the PARAM 8000 in 1991. A petaflop is a measure of computing speed and...

Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) is the deceptively bland name that obscures from public view the Defence Research & Development  Organisation’s (DRDO’s) most glamorous laboratory. At the DRDO missile complex here in Hyderabad, ASL develops the ballistic missiles that, in the ultimate nuclear nightmare, will carry Indian nuclear weapons to targets — thousands of kilometres away. Foreign collaboration is seeping into many areas of R&D, but ASL’s technological domain — the realm of strategic ballistic missiles — is something that no country parts with, for love or for money. No foreigner would ever set foot in ASL. But Business Standard has been allowed an exclusive visit. The erudite, soft-spoken director of ASL, Dr V G Sekharan, describes the technologies that were developed for the DRDO’s new, 5,000-kilometre range Agni-5 missile, which was tested flawlessly in April. He reveals nothing except restraint stood between India and an intercontinental ballistic miss...

The 350-km range surface-to-surface Prithvi II missile was successfully flight tested at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Balasore district in Odisha on Saturday giving the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) the Prithvi power. "It was a text-book launch with very high accuracy. With this test launch, we can say that the SFC has demonstrated its expertise in firing the missile," DRDO director general and scientific advisor to defence minister, V K Saraswat, told STOIon phone from Balasore. Saraswat said the missile had an accuracy of better than 10 meters and this showed the standard of the missile. The single stage liquid propelled vehicle developed by DRDO was inducted into the armed forces and one of the missiles drawn from the inventory of the armed forces was test-fired by the SFC on Saturday. The vehicle is guided all through by an accurate Inertial Navigation System (INS) and controlled by the Thrust Vector Control and Aero-Dynamic Control Systems. The missile de...

The much-awaited indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will now be put to test in the forthcoming air exercise "Iron Feast", to be held in February next year in Pokhran of Jaisalmer. The Tejas will display its capabilities in the exercise, where its lethality, endurance and precision will be tested, Air Marshal Anjan Kumar Gogoi, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South-Western Air command, said at a press conference here. If the supersonic fighter is found performing successfully on every parameter in this exercise, its first squadron will be deployed in Bangalore, he said. This will be the first demonstration of strength by Tejas after it recently completed weapon trials in preparation for its operational clearance and now planned to be finally cleared for operational service after this exercise.

India’s first home-built nuclear submarine is set for sea trials. The indigenous 6,000-ton INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) was unveiled in 2009 as part of a project to construct five such vessels which would be armed with nuclear-tipped missiles and torpedoes. "Arihant is steadily progressing towards operationalisation, and we hope to commence sea trials in the coming months," Indian navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told reporters. "Our maritime and nuclear doctrine will then be aligned to ensure that our nuclear insurance comes from the sea," Verma said, Arihant is powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor and can reach 44 kilometres an hour (24 knots), according to defence officials. It will carry a 95-member crew. The Indian navy inducted a Russian-leased nuclear submarine into service in April this year, joining China, France, the United States, Britain and Russia in the elite club of countries with nuclear-powered vessels. Verma said 43 warships...

India today successfully test fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range at Chandipur off Odisha coast. The missile, which has a flight range of up to 290 km, is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg. "The cruise missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher from the launch complex-3 at about 1030 hours and all data is being retrieved for analysis," defence sources said. The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface Army version, was test fired as part of user trial by the Army, they said. The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the Army and Navy, and the Air-Force version is in final stage of trial, a defence official said.

The indigenous stealth frigate INS Sahyadri was inducted to the Navy yesterday. INS Sahyadri is the 3rd of the seven new warships that the Navy is going to acquire. These new ship will be stealthier and will carry supersonic cruise missile BrahMos. It will also have a complement of weapons and the latest phased array radars to provide a clearer picture of approaching threats. Along with the capability to launch offensive on enemy vessels, the warship is equipped with advance electronic warfare capabilities and torpedoes to detect and neutralise enemy submarines The Defence Minister accompanied by the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma was present to commission the 6,200 tonne warship INS Sahyadri, which is the third and last of the Shivalik-class stealth frigates under Project 17 built indigenously at the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL). The first two ships in the class are INS Shivalik and INS Satpura that are now on active duty. The three have cost some Rs 10,200 crore and hav...

India is all set to give the go-ahead for an ambitious mission to Mars, expected in November next year, a top Space Department official said here on Saturday. “A lot of studies have been done on the possible mission to Mars”, Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan told reporters here. “We have come to the last phase of approvals”, he said. . “And I am sure that, maybe soon, we will be hearing an announcement on the Mars mission“. According to ISRO officials, a significant amount of work on the planned Mars mission has been completed and scientific payloads have been short-listed. The project report for Indian Mars Orbiter mission has been submitted for government approval. The mission envisages launching an Orbiter around Mars using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL). The Orbiter will be placed in an orbit of 500 x 80,000 km around MARS and will have a provision to carry nearly 25 kg of scientific pay...

That the Indian Army's artillery regiments are in desperate need of a makeover is well known. But the process of modernisation and upgrade has moved at a glacial pace. The only new weapon in sight is the M777 light howitzer which has been cleared for procurement from BAE Systems in the US. The DRDO has now stepped in, reviving an old artillery project that had been shut down some years ago owing to the Army's lack of interest in an indigenous project. Working this time with the Army's full backing, the DRDO has begun work on a new 155mm 45-calibre gun that could take a decade to develop and field.  Dr S Sundaresh , head of the team for the new artillery project, said in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN that the gun would comprise certain high-end technologies that could require a foreign collaborator. ON THE NEW GUN We are proposing to develop a futuristic gun in consultation with the Army. We are in dialogue with the Army for some of the new technologies we a...

The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Indian Army launched the Agni-I missile from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, on Friday. The flight was a success with the missile travelling its full range of 700 km. The practice launch took place at 10.06 a.m. with Agni-I lifting off from a road mobile launcher (a modified TATRA truck) stationed at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) on the Wheeler Island and the missile sped towards its targeted area in the Bay of Bengal. It followed its path perfectly guided by onboard computers. The missile’s re-entry systems worked well and it plunged into the targeted area with accuracy. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) designed and developed Agni-I. The Army has already deployed this short-range missile which can carry nuclear warheads. An elated V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, told The Hindu from the Wheeler Island, that all the Agni missiles — Agni-I, II, III, IV and V, developed b...

A wholly Indian-built spy/surveillance satellite, Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) that can see through clouds and fog and has very high-resolution imaging is slated for launch in April, a senior official of the Indian space agency has said. An official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said thorough tests were being done on the Risat-1. "The Risat-1 is put to thermal vacuum test (a test to check the satellite's functioning in space environment). It is a complex microwave satellite being built for the first time in India. The satellite is expected to be launched in April," the senior official told, not wishing to be named because of the organisational rules. In earlier satellites, one major component, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was imported, but in Risat-1 that has also been developed in India. He said Risat-1 is the first such satellite being built by India and is a bit complex compared to other remote sensing/earth observation satellites ...

India is likely to testfire its indigenously developed new sub-sonic cruise missile Nirbhay next month, sources said Wednesday. "The Defense Research and Development Organization has made the missile which can travel at a sub-sonic speed that is less than the speed of sound. It will be testfired in April," the sources said. Nirbhay, India's equivalent of America's long-range Tomahawk, is a two-stage, surface-to-surface missile which can carry multiple payloads and engage several targets. It has a range of nearly 1,000 km. Nirbhay will be a terrain hugging, stealthy missile capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads depending on mission requirements and will use an inertial navigation system for guidance. "It will supplement Indo-Russian made BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the sense that it would enable delivery of warheads farther than the 300 km range of BrahMos," the sources added.

DRDO today conducted a successful test launch of the interceptor missile. DRDO’s Air Defence Missile AAD-05 has successfully hit the ballistic missile and destroyed it at a height of 15 kms off the Coast of Orissa near the Wheelers Island. A modified Prithvi missile mimicking the ballistic missile was launched at 1010 hrs from ITR Chandipur. Radars located at different locations tracked the incoming ballistic missile. Interceptor missile was ready to take-off at Wheelers Island. Guidance computers continuously computed the trajectory of the ballistic missile and launched AAD-05 Interceptor Missile at a precisely calculated time. With the target trajectory continuously updated by the radar, the onboard guidance computer guided the AAD-05 Interceptor Missile towards the target missile. The onboard radio frequency seeker identified the target missile, guided the AAD-05 Interceptor Missile close to the target missile, hit the target missile directly and destroyed it. Warhead also exploded ...