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Arihant Roy

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Then HSTDV would require canister for storage if I am not wrong similar technology will be used in our hypersonic missile too as it will be also launched without fairings.

Regarding abdul kalam dream I think he was talking about avatar.
There is no relation between canisters for storage and fairings used to encapsulate the vehcle from the outside pressures and stresses. Both mechanical and thermal.

You require a certain environment for storage of such articles. And missiles . And bombs.Temp, humidity needs to be maintained within a certain range .
 

Arihant Roy

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The Astra mk2 will use the dual pulse propulsion module of LRSAM . The motor will be modified to fit the Astra mk2 missile airframe . Remember that DRDO had developed the propulsion block including the TVC vanes of LRSAM.

The guidance , rf fuse and two way data linksseekers will be ported from Astra mk1. So, we will be seeing Astra mk1 enter service within a very short time span .

Also remember that the good ACM had spoken multiple times on how Astra was quickly operationalised the moment it completed its series of user trials at multiple forums and conferences . He explicitly said the same at the latest defense attache conclave organised by Nitin Gokhale and Bharat shakti .

Since the Astra missile initially used a newer upgrades variant of the 9B1348 seeker , integration with Su30MKI's Bars and the associate fire control system became easier. The DARE MC also helped to fasten up things . That's the advantage of having homegrown systems and subsystems . You can mix and match things in a much easier simple manner without having to run to the OEM and persuade them to provide you with the required codes and algos.

The similarity of Astra mk2 and LRSAM in the propulsion part will also help to bring down unit costs. Same applies to the seekers .
 
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Karthi

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Modified IJT commences spin flight testing



The indigenous Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) designed and developed by HAL to replace the ageing Kiran aircraft fleet of the IAF commenced spin flight testing in Bengaluru. The flight was piloted by HAL’s test pilots Gp. Capt H.V. Thakur (Retd) and Wg. Cdr P. Avasti (Retd).

The spin testing of an aircraft is the most crucial phase of its flight testing. Accordingly, the testing will be gradually progressed to assess the behaviour of the aircraft till six turn spins to either side to meet the targeted requirement
The IJT has already been tested to its full envelope in terms of speed, altitude and load factor (‘g’ envelope) and has also been integrated with drop tanks as well as bombs.

For spin test, HAL redesigned the aircraft by moving the vertical tail aft and extending the rudder surface. These changes for ensuring a satisfactory spin behaviour required extensive redesign of the rear fuselage and the rudder. The changes have been incorporated in two aircraft with the involvement and clearance from certification agencies at every stage. Post modification, the two aircraft underwent significant flight tests to assess the general handling with the new configuration of fin and rudder. These aircraft have now been incorporated with the necessary safety devices (Anti-Spin Parachute Systems). During the first flight, initially the aircraft was taken through one turn spin to the left and right hand sides to test the spin characteristics.
 

Okabe Rintarou

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I am unable to fully comprehend some parts of the part three of the series by Tarmak . Although as usual its a great piece and emphasises on the right areas.

https://www.onmanorama.com/news/nat...fly-part-3.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

The engineers are working on a new booster motor which will reduce aerodynamic forces and stresses induced on the HSTDV vehicle. This will allow the vehicle to be launched without any fairings. And the scientists are hoping to test this out in the very next launch.

As far I know, the stresses induced and aerodynamic forces are proportional to the booster speeds and the AoA of the cruise vehicle. Lower speeds means lower dynamic stresses and also lower skin drag . Lower kinetic heating .

So are you we to assume that the current booster takes hSTDV to a much higher Mach no during the later stages of flight regime. More than M6.5 . Which necessitates the use of the fairings . With a newer booster the peak velocity would be within the speed limits of the HSTDV. So a launch without any fairings can be attempted .
Not the speed alone. I think this has more to do with the fact that during the ascent phase, in the troposphere, high air density causes higher pressure and temperature stresses on the HSTDV airframe. In order to circumvent this, the first test relied on enclosing the HSTDV in a payload fairing. In parallel, the structural dynamics of HSTDV flying naked atop a booster were continually studied. Now that study is complete and our boffins are ready to test HSTDV without a payload fairing, but the booster will now have to be custom designed (based on data from the structural dynamics study) so that the booster only picks up speed after reaching the stratosphere. Within the troposphere, it will have to fly at speed and AoA limits as dictated by the study. The design objective of this booster is different. The previous booster, which was a Agni 1 booster, was designed with the objective of minimizing the ascent time for the payload.

As for where we stood in terms of solid fuel tech in the 90s (or even today), its certainly not "at par" with the world. We don't have ultra-high burn rate propellants. The grain strength is a bottleneck. In fact, from what I know, the reason Shaurya missile was rejected initially and Pralay came about is that Army was not happy with the lower burn rate of Shaurya's propellant grains. World standard is much higher.
Look at the Russian A-235 Nudol missile.
Also look at THAAD.
We have a ways to go. But we are getting there. This is going to be indispensable for AD-1 and AD-2.

And for Dr. Kalam's dream of making reusable missiles, it might be his original thought, but its not as if he was the first one with that idea. Americans have been working on projects like Blackswift for a long time now.
 

NAMICA

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Not the speed alone. I think this has more to do with the fact that during the ascent phase, in the troposphere, high air density causes higher pressure and temperature stresses on the HSTDV airframe. In order to circumvent this, the first test relied on enclosing the HSTDV in a payload fairing. In parallel, the structural dynamics of HSTDV flying naked atop a booster were continually studied. Now that study is complete and our boffins are ready to test HSTDV without a payload fairing, but the booster will now have to be custom designed (based on data from the structural dynamics study) so that the booster only picks up speed after reaching the stratosphere. Within the troposphere, it will have to fly at speed and AoA limits as dictated by the study. The design objective of this booster is different. The previous booster, which was a Agni 1 booster, was designed with the objective of minimizing the ascent time for the payload.

As for where we stood in terms of solid fuel tech in the 90s (or even today), its certainly not "at par" with the world. We don't have ultra-high burn rate propellants. The grain strength is a bottleneck. In fact, from what I know, the reason Shaurya missile was rejected initially and Pralay came about is that Army was not happy with the lower burn rate of Shaurya's propellant grains. World standard is much higher.
Look at the Russian A-235 Nudol missile.
Also look at THAAD.
We have a ways to go. But we are getting there. This is going to be indispensable for AD-1 and AD-2.

And for Dr. Kalam's dream of making reusable missiles, it might be his original thought, but its not as if he was the first one with that idea. Americans have been working on projects like Blackswift for a long time now.
.
Agni series missiles are old now .we have catched up lot in terms of complex propellants, burn rate ,composite and casting.
 

Chinmoy

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I am unable to fully comprehend some parts of the part three of the series by Tarmak . Although as usual its a great piece and emphasises on the right areas.

https://www.onmanorama.com/news/nat...fly-part-3.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

The engineers are working on a new booster motor which will reduce aerodynamic forces and stresses induced on the HSTDV vehicle. This will allow the vehicle to be launched without any fairings. And the scientists are hoping to test this out in the very next launch.

As far I know, the stresses induced and aerodynamic forces are proportional to the booster speeds and the AoA of the cruise vehicle. Lower speeds means lower dynamic stresses and also lower skin drag . Lower kinetic heating .

So are you we to assume that the current booster takes hSTDV to a much higher Mach no during the later stages of flight regime. More than M6.5 . Which necessitates the use of the fairings . With a newer booster the peak velocity would be within the speed limits of the HSTDV. So a launch without any fairings can be attempted .


PS- This means our oballisticmissile tech from the late 90s and early 2000s and solid propellants science of that era is almost at par with other countries . We are so sophisticated that we need a new booster to be able to launch HSTDV without fairings . This is just awesome.


APJ KALAM is a legend of a legend. An ultra legend. If I bring a Dragon ball analogy here , HE is super saiyan four level.

He dreamt big on Hypersonics . He got his inspiration from Lord Krishna's lord 🙏 sudarshan chakra. He envisaged a hypersonic mother missile/drone which would carry smaller guided missiles warheads , take them to the general area, launch them and return back to base. Reusable .He was ahead of his time by 20-30 years . Even Uncle Sam with a defense budget that is almost two times of India's total budget doesn't have such a niche capability .
20201123_160623.jpg
 

Arihant Roy

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Not the speed alone. I think this has more to do with the fact that during the ascent phase, in the troposphere, high air density causes higher pressure and temperature stresses on the HSTDV airframe. In order to circumvent this, the first test relied on enclosing the HSTDV in a payload fairing. In parallel, the structural dynamics of HSTDV flying naked atop a booster were continually studied. Now that study is complete and our boffins are ready to test HSTDV without a payload fairing, but the booster will now have to be custom designed (based on data from the structural dynamics study) so that the booster only picks up speed after reaching the stratosphere. Within the troposphere, it will have to fly at speed and AoA limits as dictated by the study. The design objective of this booster is different. The previous booster, which was a Agni 1 booster, was designed with the objective of minimizing the ascent time for the payload.

As for where we stood in terms of solid fuel tech in the 90s (or even today), its certainly not "at par" with the world. We don't have ultra-high burn rate propellants. The grain strength is a bottleneck. In fact, from what I know, the reason Shaurya missile was rejected initially and Pralay came about is that Army was not happy with the lower burn rate of Shaurya's propellant grains. World standard is much higher.
Look at the Russian A-235 Nudol missile.
Also look at THAAD.
We have a ways to go. But we are getting there. This is going to be indispensable for AD-1 and AD-2.

And for Dr. Kalam's dream of making reusable missiles, it might be his original thought, but its not as if he was the first one with that idea. Americans have been working on projects like Blackswift for a long time now.
You said the same thing in a roundabout manner with greater depth and details.

Like in order to alleviate the problem of heating at low altitudes , the speeds should be or rather the top speed reached should be less than Mach 6.8.
If you want to have lower heating at higher denisty air of troposphere, you need to keep your speeds low OR use fairings . Skin drag / aerodynamic heating is proportional to speeds and aoa . So the new booster will have a lesser top speed or peak velocity than Agni 1 booster .

In stratosphere you also have that heating problem but the magnitude is less due to lower density . I reckon the Agni 1 booster takes the RV to a much higher Mach no. Agni 1 RV has a reentry velocity of around 3 to 3.5 m/sec. The Agni 1 booster has to take the RV to a much higher velocity than what is required for the HSTDV . Because we wanted to save time, we cut some corners and used the Agni booster so as to validate the basic flight dynamics and scramjet operation of the HSTDV . The second flight was more of a proof of concept .

Now that we have successfully demonstrated them, we will proceed with a dedicated booster .

The A-235 is a dedicated Asat system. It will complement 53T6 Gazelle of A-135 in the eco atmospheric interceptor role.

Also check out the Gorgon nuke tipped interceptor . It is much faster than our Agni 1 or for that matter any Agni missile in its raw accel eration after launch . It's in the Thaad class in speeds and acceleration . Agni doesn't come close. Also for the Gazelle , do check out the exhaust colour. It's reddish. Unlike our creamish white . Gazelle and Gordon uses higher ISP,high burn rates for higher acceleration and top speeds.

We were not at par but we were close. Yes our burn rates weren't good but they were comparable to the ones used in Western ICBM. Western and Eastern interceptors used high burn rates propellants though.
 
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Arihant Roy

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Hearing about Blackswift for the first time . Thanks for bringing it up. Happy to be able to learn new things from others .

Familiar with its cousin HTV-2 Falcon . DARPA.

Scientists and engineers on both sides have thought about similar vehicles before Kalam. But there isn't any program of record on hypersonic reusable drone in US. A black project may exist though.

' Those who know don't speak. And those who speak don't know. '
 

Arihant Roy

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Yes ,Indian Army has test fired the 450 km range variant of Brahmos missile from Trak island .


The missile was test fired at 10 am and hit its target with pin point accuracy in another island in the Andaman archipelago . This test marks the operationalisation of the 400+ km range variant by the Army.
 

Arihant Roy

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Multiple Brahmos tests to take place this week.

The first test is scheduled for today

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/in...issile-this-week/amp_articleshow/79380572.cms
Some important points to note here.

1. Work is going on a fast pace to induct and operationally deploy the 450 km range Brahmos missile. I reckon this successful test will pave the way for this.missile induction .

2. India and Russia is jointly working on a 800 km range super Brahmos which will have its first test next year .

3. Three Brahmos regiments are operational with the Indian Army with another two on the way. I knew the fourth Brahmos regiment with Brahmos block 3 steep dive capability and the ability to hit targets on the reverse slope is already operational . Ten ships of the Indian Navy are already having the Brahmos as their prime strike weapon. Two ships are now being fitted out with Brahmos uvls and missiles. I reckon these are the Visakhapatnam and INS Delhi which is undergoing a MLU . All principal warships aree now getting Brahmos.

4. Orders amounting to a massive Rs 36000 crore has already been placed wrt Brahmos . Further orders are on the way.
 

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