Mighty India Power

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...