India is ready to develop Advanced Seekers for Tactical Missiles

Imagine a war scenario in which miniaturized missiles equipped with Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) are unleashed from a mother missile to take out select enemy targets like an ammunition depot while avoiding collateral damage. 

A mother missile acts as a “force multiplier” and to achieve the desired result, each miniaturized missile will have a seeker to ensure its independent motion, irrespective of the mother missile's motion. 

Seekers, which are of two types — radio-frequency and infra-red, enable a missile to acquire, track and home in on to the target. They are required for all tactical missiles (less than 300 km range).

Scientists at the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a key laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organization’s (DRDO) missile complex here, have embarked on developing such seekers to eventually equip mother missiles with smaller missiles packed with PGMs. 

The mandate of the RCI is to deliver avionic systems for all missiles, including anti-ballistic systems and anti-aircraft missiles. 

In a bid to conduct trials without using the mother missile, a Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) has been imported to be used as a Technology Demonstrator for the project. A flight trial was conducted at the Integrated Test Range using the RPV along with a recoverable tow body by providing the vehicle the same velocity of a mother missile.

“Good results were obtained from that exercise,” said by RCI Director S.K. Chaudhuri. More such trials would be carried out in stages to check the guidance, control and inertial navigation systems. 

By the end of 2013, a crucial trial of the RPV with missile-launched PGMs to hit a target with both IIR (Imaging infrared) and mmW (Millimteric Wave) seekers was being planned. Later, a flight test with a mother missile would be conducted, he said.

Another frontier technology area in which scientists have begun work is to design and develop ‘Low Probability of Intercept Radar Seeker' to equip anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. 

"This seeker will enable the missile to escape detection and jamming by enemy radars. Currently, Russia and the U.S. have such seekers", a senior RCI scientist said.

A few months ago, a major success was achieved when anti-tank Nag missile was flight-tested with an indigenously-developed mmW seeker.

Shining Growth of Indian People in Global Markets

There is more to India than just its over-emphasized status of being the most populous democracy in the world. Random economic facts like India being the largest producer of milk, the largest consumer of sugar and spices as also the largest consumer of gold till last year, crop up now and then. But there have been achievements in the last few years which have put India on the world map. Over the last couple of years, India has been seen stamping its presence in the league of global leaders by the strength of its economic power. Consider these facts :

• The Tata Group is the largest manufacturing employer in the UK.
•  Ireland’s richest person - Pallonji Mistry - is an Indian.
•  Coal India is the single largest coal producer in the world.
•  India is the largest whisky manufacturer in the world.
•  The Taj Group is the largest chain of hotels in Asia.

 Despite a generous trickle of negative news, the list of these positives is also getting bigger. Household brand names such as Citigroup, Pepsi and Motorola are associated with an Indian CEO. Clearly, India has moved on from being a nation of snake charmers and appears to be on its way to become an economic power. The list includes, Nano, the cheapest car in the world from Tata Motors; Aakash, the cheapest tablet PC in the world, priced at $46; and other cheap tablet PC initiatives by private companies. Indian banks have only 2% bad loans versus 20% in China. In the mid-90s, on a representation made by Indian exporters, the government had removed the mandatory use of the ‘Made in India’ tag from goods exported. The law still exists on paper. Ostensibly, Indian exporters were embarrassed of using it then. But, today, no one is shying away from using the tag. Parachute is the world’s largest coconut oil brand. Bangalore has more Grade-A offices than Singapore. India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world. Parle-G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand. KEC is global leader in tower production capacity.

India has successfully tested First ICBM Missile Agni-V (5000 Km)

After the mischief played by weather gods a day earlier, the god of fire or ‘Agni’ came into his own on Thursday morning to hurl a potent fireball more than halfway across the Indian Ocean at over 20 times the speed of sound. India heralded a new era in its “credible” strategic deterrence capability by testing its most ambitious nuclear missile “the over 5,000-km range Agni-V” that brings all of China and much more within its strike envelope. With the launch of the 50-tonne missile from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast at 8.07 am, and its 20-minute flight to an “impact point towards western Australia’’, India also yanked open the door to the super-exclusive ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) club that counts only the US, Russia, China, France and the UK as its members. India can, however, can sit at this high table only when Agni-V becomes fully operational after “four to five repeatable tests’’ and user-trials. It will be around 2015 that the three stage, solid-fuelled missile will be ready for deployment by the tri-service strategic forces command. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and defence minister A K Antony congratulated the scientists for “doing us proud”. India, with a declared “no first-use’’ nuclear doctrine, could have gone in for a much higher range ICBM, say top officials. But Agni-V, with its “very short reaction time as well as very high mobility for requisite operational flexibility’’, takes care of “current threat perceptions.”

After testing the over 5,000km Agni-V missile, which went up to 600km into space during its parabolic trajectory, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) now feels it can fashion deadly anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons in double quick time. The ASAT weapon would include marrying Agni-V’s propulsion system with the “kill vehicle” of the under-development two-tier BMD (ballistic missile defence) system that has been tested a few times to track and destroy hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth’s atmosphere. 

China’s strategic experts and official media on Friday said the Agni V missile has a longer range than India admits, and the nuclear-capable projectile can hit cities in Europe. “The Indian missile has a range of 8,000km and not 5,000km as claimed by India,” said an expert Du Wenlong, adding that the Indian government had deliberately downplayed the missile’s capability to avoid causing concern to other countries. Wenlong, an expert at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, was not alone. Zhang Zhaozhang, professor with PLA National Defence University, too, was quoted by the paper, Global Times, as saying, “According to China’s standard, an ICBM should have a range of at least 8,000km. The Agni-V’s range could be further enhanced to become an ICBM.” There were also signs that China will try to pressure the US and Russia into not selling their missile guidance systems to India.