Air Defence for NCR ready | Mumbai, Bangalore next? | Complete deliverable version missile's flight test soon

By Anantha Krishnan M

Express News Service

Bangalore: Indian version of Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) is ready. Under Phase-1 deployment, the National Capital Region (NCR) will come under the safe shield of programme Air Defence (AD). Sources in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirm to Express that the entire gamut of operations will be linked to the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) in Delhi.

Since the project inception, the  Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has so far conducted six successive trials. "India's network-centric warfare capabilities will come to the party with AD cover for NCR first. Once, this module is operational, we can replicate the same to other Indian cities. We have prepared a detailed programme and submitted to the government in this regard,” sources said.

In Phase-II deployment, cities like Mumabi, Bangalore and Kolkotta could find a place, though the specifics haven't been yet finalised. "Missile launchers, radars, interceptors and network systems have all being readied for for NCR. India will now be among the league of nations with BMD capabilities,” sources said.

Surrounded by hostile neighbours possessing nuclear capable ballistic missiles with varying ranges, the threat perception to India has been brainstormed and assessed periodically by New Delhi. The AD system detects an incoming missile hundreds of kilometers away and destroys it outside the atmosphere and any leakages will be dealt at lower heights before it could do any significant damage.

Giving the technical challenges of AD, sources said: “We have to detect the missile and  should possess the ability to track it at distances of several hundred kilometers. We need to give adequate reaction time to the control center to process and analyse the threat and to the interceptors to be launched and take on the incoming missile before it reaches the target. We have the radars now and the plan for improved longer ranges is in progress."

The size of an incoming missile payload could be just two to three meters and it comes at a speed of approx 5 km/sec, giving very few seconds to the weapon systems to react. This requires very accurate prediction of incoming missile position as well as control of interceptor path. “The coverage has to ensure adequate number of radars, a highly integrated, network-centric system which processes the inputs from various radars, predict the path of the incoming missile and decide when the interceptor has to be launched,” sources said.

DRDO claims that these technologies have been developed and demonstrated to Tri Services Command. “The coverage is for an entire area consisting of several hundred kilometers and not for a specific building. However, the deployment ensures that key assets are at the center of the covered area providing highest protection,” sources said.

Once the NCR module is deployed, similar modules can be adopted covering other important regions and eventually the entire country. “All modules are interlinked in overlapping fashion to generate networked AD system. Satellites are needed only for time-synchronization of different stations across the country. Once the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is operational by 2014, we will not dependent upon satellite constellation of other countries,”

sources said.

Sources say that in future a need will arise to detect the launch of a ballistic missile thousands of kilometers away. This will be done by satellites having very high sensitive infrared detectors to detect the plume from boosters of missiles and provide early warning to the AD systems in the powered phase of the potent target, thus providing more time for reaction. “It would be possible to use high energy weapons to destroy these systems during launch. These are areas where the country needs to look forward and take a technology initiative to close gaps in defence capabilities,” sources said.

The deliverable version of an endo-atmospheric interceptor missile (protection range or down range will be aprox up to 30 km and kill altitude will be up to approx 20 km) is all ready to be flight tested. The missile is part of the twin-layered ballistic missile defence that is being developed by the DRDO which engages the enemy missile in the endo-atmosphere.

The interceptor missile is primarily designed for engaging short to medium-range ballistic missiles (SRBM/MRBM) with ranges up to 2000 km. It has also got the capability to engage quasi ballistic missiles of medium range. The performance in terms of the kill zone and lethality of this missile is significantly higher than contemporary missiles like PAC-3.

Later this  month (January), the complete deliverable version of this missile will be flight tested from Wheeler’s Island against a SRBM launched from Chandipur.

A significant research has gone into development of highly sophisticated onboard algorithms to enable the DRDO scientists in predicting a near hit-to-kill performance in the next mission.

(Copyright@The New Indian Express. This artilce appeared in Express on 02 Jan 2012. Regular updates will resume on the blog from today. Stand-by for 2 reports on Navy and DRDO in the coming days.)

Prahaar awaits Army intent; DRDO luring IAF, Navy

By Anantha Krishnan M

Express News Service

Bangalore/Hyderabad: Prahaar in Sanskrit stands for 'Strike.' And, it struck where it matters the most during its maiden launch in July this year. Kept under wraps until then, Prahaar is an offshoot of India's Air Defence (AD) programme, with the scientists converting the endo-atmospheric interceptor, into a brand new tactical battlefield support missile. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) launched the project sans sanctions (no user requirements and approved budgets) in July 2010.  One year later, the missile with a range of 150 km was successfully demonstrated to the Indian Army.

Tough to be detected owing to its high maneuvering capabilities, Prahaar is a quick reaction missile, which can be used against targets between 50-150 km. Currently the DRDO is in talks with the Indian Army on the deployment philosophies and their needs, apart from generating confidence of the user, which is always a commodity in short supply. DRDO claims that the user 'has shown a lot of interest' taking into account its cost-effectiveness and the sheer numbers by which it can be fielded.

“The futuristic tactical operations will increasingly require long-range stand-off weapons with high accuracy and short reaction time to neutralize time critical targets. Prahaar can be be adapted to existing maritime platform as well as to an aircraft increasing its utility. It can neutralize the identified targets, provide effective counter force system and serve as an affordable solution to the future battlefield requirements,” sources said.

The missile is capable of carrying multiple warheads, has very fast reaction capability from mission command to execute the launch. “With all weather, day and  night launch capability, Prahaar's range, if launched from an aircraft (read as Sukhoi), can be extended up to 350 km. This is quite feasible as the missile has less weight, diameter and radar cross section. As of now, we are waiting for a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the Army,” sources said.

Once the Army gives the LoI, the missile will have to undergo 10-12 trials to fine tune its effectiveness with

different warheads.  “The missiles are controlled and guided from lift off to impact and maneuver continuously so that the prediction of both launch point and impact point are difficult. Multiple launchers can be linked together to form a missile battery to deliver simultaneous multi-axis saturation attack on the target,” sources said.

Prahaar is capable of carrying a variety of warheads like pre-fragmented, incendiary sub-munitions, runway-denial sub-munitions, smart munitions and thermobaric (a fuel-air bomb, which produces a blast wave for longer period) warheads. Since the missile uses solid propulsion systems, it can be put on a ready-to-launch-mode quickly. It's a zero maintenance, road-mobile system developed by young AD scientists in the average age-group of 35 years.

PART-XIV

|SERIES CONCLUDED|

Copyright@The New Indian Express. You may please email your comments to anantha.ak@gmail.com or ananthakrishnan@newindianexpress.com)

SUNDAY SPECIAL: India's young air defence bravehearts say yeh dil maange more!

PART-IV

By Anantha Krishnan M

Express News Service

Bangalore/Hyderabad: They eat, sleep and breathe technology which is definitely rocket science for you and me. A Sehwag's double ton and Aishwarya's baby girl could in all probability be passed off as an India-at-a-glance-moment in their lives. Focused, fearless and feet firm on ground, they probably don't care for the Twitter tribe and the Facebook fellows. Presenting the perfect united colours of India, these young guns of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are currently the pillars of India’s Programme Air Defence (AD).

Hand-picked by the current DRDO chief V K Saraswat in the late 90s, these go-getters in their mid-30s come as a package consisting of networking and software specialists, control and guidance gurus, RF and navigation experts, hardware and propulsion mavericks, including warhead wizards. Though their bases are distributed over a number of DRDO labs across the country, for the first time ever a media house was given access to interact* with a group of AD brains recently. (*Conditions apply!)

Programme AD is the Indian version of Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield – a mastery perfected by countries like the US, Israel, France and Russia. With the goal of developing a BMD, India has made late, yet significant progress since its formation, demonstrating tech and systems capabilities. So far, five successful ballistic missile intercept flight trials were held, resulting in the destruction of the 'incoming targets.' The first flight trial was held in 2006 November.

"Given our nation’s policy of No-First-Use, an effective missile shield is mandatory to protect our country from any ballistic missile attacks. We started afresh and all our ideas were first put in place. We were very young when we were specifically recruited for Programme AD by (Dr) Saraswat and he believed that fresh talent will have out-of-the-box ideas," says Guruprasad, hailing from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.

There are close to 100 scientists working on Programme AD and most of them have joined DRDO as Scientists in B, C & D levels -- now holding very key positions. "What makes all the difference is the freedom at which we all work. AD is a very complex programme and highly technology-cum-software intense mission. We constantly upgrade our knowledge levels and undertake lifetime surveys on weapon systems," says Bhagyalakshmi, from Tanjavoor in Tamil Nadu.

Amidst the pressures of delivering AD systems to protect the nation, these youngsters said that they had to literally start from the scratch. “There was hardly any open literature available when we began and that didn't let us down. Our families know that we are working for a sensitive national programme and support us to the core. To me, this made all the difference,” says Shallab from Rohtak in Haryana.

All the ideas for Programme AD are deliberated upon at the System Engineering Committee (SEC) meet. "The threat perception varies from one country to another and your design has to be based upon the threat scenario you perceive. We cannot simply copy any other design," says Dheeraj Gupta from New Delhi.

Despite the bad branding the DRDO got over the years, Team AD seems to have stayed as closed-knit unit, undeterred by the carpet bombing by the media. "There's a lot of tech-bonding and we don't care much about what's being told about us. We are not too much into social network sites either, and there's a reason why we are not there," says Pooja from Shimla, among the first few who joined the AD mission. "Our friends working abroad want to get back and they constantly write to us. The times are changing and we know where we are heading for," she adds with a rare sense of confidence written all over her face.

(All names changed owing to security reasons. Permission was denied to shoot the young AD scientists, for not wanting them to be identified.)

(CRACKING INDIA'S MISSILE CODE is an exclusive series currently on in The New Indian Express. In the days ahead, you will get to read a mix of news-breaks and tech-upgrades on current and futuristic missile programs of India, in addition to some human-interest pieces. Email your thoughts on this long-range series to anantha.ak@gmail.com and point out factual errors, if any, that might have crept in despite my best efforts.)