Hypersonic Missiles

[LETHALFORCE]

There is high possibility that even range of Brahomos is declared 290km to eneble Russia to comply with MCTR Act. Actual range may be more. Anyway they claimed they have achieved 5.8 Mach in lab....hope they will be able to do it in reality....and about range..our Scientists are working on it for 10 years. Hope they have acquired enough knowledge to carry on the project.
One more thing, Brahmos Corp is a company.....will it be fall under MCTR if they employ or hire Russian engineers.

Brahmos hypersonic maybe manufactured by Mantech in the future; Dr Pillai's may head the company, if it is exclusively indigenous the MCTR restrictions may no longer apply.

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2009/08/exclusive-brahmos-wants-to-shake-russia.html

Brahmos wants to shake Russia off


The CEO of Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile firm BrahMos Aerospace has recommended to the government that he be appointed the head of a new cell under the Secretary-Defence Production, that will focus, among other things, on making the BrahMos a fully Indian missile. LiveFist has learnt that Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, the highly respected CEO of BrahMos has officially proposed to the government that he be appointed the head of a "ManTech (Manufacturing Technology) Cell", and report exclusively to the Secretary-Defence Production. Sources indicate that the proposal is a much-needed first step towards Pillai's real dream of making the BrahMos fully indigenous. India only makes the inertial navigation guidance system and fire control system of the BrahMos, while Russia continues to contribute the all-important engine, booster and seeker.

In February last year, Pillai had told me, "As long as we do not control the critical technologies, i.e. engine and seeker, Russia will call all the shots in BrahMos, including cost which is critical to export competence." It was a moment of uncanny candour for a man who has hailed the Indo-Russian model as the last word in efficiency and prudence. But Pillai's vision of a full-Indian BrahMos is not some nebulous, idealistic vision he's forcing down the government's throat. The fact is, the way things stand with Russia, Pillai seriously believes the BrahMos cannot be brought up to its full potential. For the BrahMos to be a real success, in every possible way, Pillai believes it has no choice but to be a fully Indian missile, and slowly chip away at Russia's involvement and contribution.

In the proposal sent to the Defence Ministry, Pillai writes, "India has produced the world class supersonic cruise missile by entering into a Joint Venture with Russia. The real technologies that are available to India for production of missiles are not available anywhere in the world. It is time that we indigenised these technologies and be capable of bulk production. Formulation of policy statement on ManTech along with creation of Project Management as part of BrahMos Joint Venture under Secretary of Defence Production will enable India to be self-reliant in the field of supersonic and hypersonic cruise missiles of various ranges. This will also ensure availability of assured production agency with alternatives in every field."

He goes on to add, "To fulfill the demand of own defence forces as also to ensure complete indigenization, there is a requirement of manufacturing technologies that need to be bulk produced and will provide required funding to capable and willing Indian industries for establishment of infrastructure."

Pillai says that as the ManTech chief, he will prepare an annual five-year plan for indigenization resulting in bulk production, and ensure coordination between the ManTech programme and industrial preparedness and similar manufacturing programmes of the Department of Defence, other departments and agencies and the private sector.

For starters, Pillai proposes to have his company prepare a technical report describing precisely what can be indigenized and in how much time.

PS. Dr Pillai is also, of course, in the running to be the next Chief of the DRDO. Let's see how it turns out.

 

[Koji]

How do you shake off a partner whose contribution is most of the missile (including the criticla engine)?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

How do you shake off a partner whose contribution is most of the missile (including the criticla engine)?

you make the things yourself, the scramjet engine is already made by India.

http://newsx.com/story/9584


Hypersonic BrahMos undergoes successful lab test
Tue-May 13, 2008

New Delhi / Indo-Asian News Service

Indian scientists have successfully conducted a laboratory test of a hypersonic BrahMos missile, a top official said.

“We have achieved a speed of Mach 5.26 in our laboratory tests of the hypersonic version of the BrahMos. However, it will take some 15-20 tests under controlled conditions before the missile can be actually test-launched," BrahMos Aerospace Chief Executive Officer A Sivathanu Pillai said.

The test was conducted at the Hyderabad-based Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that has jointly developed the missile with Russia's NPO organisation.

BrahMos currently flies at Mach 2.86. Missiles that fly at Mach 3 to 4 (three to four times the speed of sound) belong to high supersonic class. Hypersonic missiles fly at speeds over Mach 5.

“The BrahMos hypersonic version will have higher speed, less fuel consumption and less operational time (to deploy), thus giving better results in terms of range. The high speed will also give less reaction time to the enemy,” Pillai added.

The high speed will also make the missile hard to detect and will increase the impact on the target.

“The velocity of the missile is directly proportional to the destruction it causes. The high velocity would ensure maximum damage,” Pillai said.

The hypersonic version is powered by a scramjet engine that is also used for launching satellites at low cost.

 

[Koji]

you make the things yourself, the scramjet engine is already made by India.

I did not know that. Do you have a source? As far as I was aware, India provided most of the finance and some the targeting systems only.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

I did not know that. Do you have a source? As far as I was aware, India provided most of the finance and some the targeting systems only.

link above and below

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India joins elite nations with scramjet technology

India joins elite nations with scramjet technology


BANGALORE: India has joined a handful of countries with the technology to build a new type of supersonic rocket that could reduce satellite-launching costs by nearly 90 percent, the Indian space agency said.

The Supersonic Combustion Ramjet or Scramjet technology should eventually help India build lighter and faster rockets, the Indian Space Research Organization said.

Earlier this week Indian scientists tested a prototype Scramjet engine for seven seconds, simulating travel at six times the speed of sound, S. Krishnamurthy, spokesman, ISRO said.
Conventional rockets carry their own oxygen to burn as fuel, but Scramjet rockets will take oxygen from the atmosphere, making them lighter and faster.

"We need this new technology to do that (take in air) at a velocity of Mach six," Krishnamurthy said, adding that Indian scientists hope Scramjets will eventually be able to reach speeds as high as 24 times the speed of sound.

The U.S. has already carried out a flight test with a Scramjet engine, while the Europe Union, Japan, China, Russia and Australia are in various stages of testing their technologies.
Indian scientists hope that Scramjets could bring the cost of launching satellites from the current level of $12,000 or more for 2.2 pounds of payload to less than $1,000.

"We have now proven our technology on the ground and hope to do flight-test within two years, though mastering the technology might take up to 10 years from now," he added

 

[Daredevil]

I did not know that. Do you have a source? As far as I was aware, India provided most of the finance and some the targeting systems only.

Here is latest report on scramjet technology of ISRO

AERO INDIA: ISRO prepares to test reusable launch vehicle
By
The Indian Space Research Organisation is hoping to begin demonstration flights of a reusable launch vehicle by 2012 as part of efforts to provide the country with lower-cost access to space.
ISRO is developing supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) technology and has carried out combustion flow simulations, as well as achieving supersonic combustion in ground tests.
The next step will be to perform flight tests of a scramjet engine demonstration vehicle, comprising a rocket fitted with an air-breathing engine. This will be followed by flights of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator, a 1:20 scale model of which was exhibited at Aero India.
Its maiden flight is planned for around 2010-12.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

interesting article

Scramjet hits Mach 10 over Australia - tech - 15 June 2007 - New Scientist

Scramjet hits Mach 10 over Australia


A supersonic scramjet engine has been successfully launched from a test range in Australia. The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) said the scramjet achieved reached 10 times the speed of sound during the test.

Scramjets are supersonic combustion engines that use oxygen from the atmosphere to burn onboard fuel. By contrast, conventional rockets carry their own oxygen to burn fuel. The hope is that scramjets can be made lighter and faster than oxygen-carrying rockets.

But mixing oxygen with a fuel in a supersonic airflow and then igniting it is tricky. The tests involved accelerating the scramjet to several times the speed of sound and switching it on.

A rocket carrying the HyCAUSE scramjet engine blasted off from the Woomera range in South Australia on Friday. It reached an altitude of 530 kilometres before re-entering the earth's atmosphere where the scramjet engine was successfully ignited.

Successful test
HyCAUSE is the Hypersonic Collaborative Australia/United States Experiment - a collaboration between the DSTO and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The ultimate goal of the tests is to design an engine that produces more thrust than drag.

"It looks like we've been very successful," said Steve Butler, a spokesman for the DSTO. "We've got to go away and collate the data, that will take a few weeks, but it looks very promising."

Aircraft flying at Mach 10 could cut travelling time between Sydney and London to as little as two hours.

Increased payloads
"This technology has the potential to put numerous defence and civilian aerospace applications within our reach during the next couple of decades," said Warren Harch, a scientist at the DSTO.

Butler said they could also slash the cost of sending satellites into space, because the weight saved by not carrying oxygen could be used to increase the payload.

Next year, the DSTO and the US Air Force begin a five-year programme testing scramjet technology at the Woomera range. A number of other countries including Italy and Japan are also developing scramjets

 

[LETHALFORCE]

domain-b.com : Hypersonic Brahmos II to be ready by 2013

Hypersonic Brahmos II to be ready by 2013 news
02 March 2009



Chennai: Brahmos Aerospace's hypersonic missile project, Brahmos II, was expected to be ready by 2013, a top defence official said here today.

"Once developed, the missile would have a speed between Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) and Mach 7", chief controller of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, informed media on the sidelines of the inauguration of an exhibition of armoured vehicles by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE).

The exhibition was organised as part of the DRDO Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Dr Pillai, CMD, Brahmos, also said that future wars would be fought with a minimum number of people who would be using high-powered weapons. "It will be network centric and fought with intelligent and autonomous systems", he said.

Cyber warfare and robotic systems would dominate the battlefield, he said.

An MoU was signed between CVRDE and Anna University to develop various combat vehicles for the future battlefield. The MoU would facilitate students of the University gain access to high technology labs of CVRDE at Avadi, director S Sundaresh later said.

 

[venom]

domain-b.com : Hypersonic Brahmos II to be ready by 2013

Hypersonic Brahmos II to be ready by 2013 news
02 March 2009



Chennai: Brahmos Aerospace's hypersonic missile project, Brahmos II, was expected to be ready by 2013, a top defence official said here today.

"Once developed, the missile would have a speed between Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) and Mach 7", chief controller of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, informed media on the sidelines of the inauguration of an exhibition of armoured vehicles by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE).

The exhibition was organised as part of the DRDO Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Dr Pillai, CMD, Brahmos, also said that future wars would be fought with a minimum number of people who would be using high-powered weapons. "It will be network centric and fought with intelligent and autonomous systems", he said.

Cyber warfare and robotic systems would dominate the battlefield, he said.

An MoU was signed between CVRDE and Anna University to develop various combat vehicles for the future battlefield. The MoU would facilitate students of the University gain access to high technology labs of CVRDE at Avadi, director S Sundaresh later said.

So the Project-17A Frigates & Project-15A Destroyers might be equipped with Brahmos-2

 

[LETHALFORCE]

yes venom highly possible.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

ICBM test to launch India into Big Five



ICBM test to launch India into Big Five
Times of India ^ | 2/14/2009 | Rajat Pandit

Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 12:28:25 AM by bruinbirdman

BANGALORE: India will test its most ambitious strategic missile next year, in what will be its first step towards having potent ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, largely the preserve of the Big-5 countries till now.

With the design work on the 5,000-km-range Agni-V virtually over now, DRDO chief M Natarajan on Friday said the missile would certainly be tested before December 2010. "I am very confident we will be able to do it,'' he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Aero India-2009 show here.

The work on the nuclear-capable Agni-V basically revolves around incorporating a third composite stage in the two-stage Agni-III, along with some advanced technologies like ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance.

Agni-III, with a strike range of 3,500-km to accord the capability to strike targets deep inside China, on its part, has been successfully tested only two times till now.

Defence scientists want the solid-fuelled Agni-V, for which the government has sanctioned around Rs 2,500 crore, to be a canister-launch missile system to ensure it has the requisite operational flexibility to be fired from any part of the country.

Agni-V will be slightly short of true ICBMs, which have ranges in excess of 5,500 km. "We have the capability to go in for much higher range but it is for the government to give a go-ahead. At present, we have a green signal for only Agni-V,'' said a scientist.

As reported recently by TOI, while China is several leagues ahead, India continues to lag behind even Pakistan in the missile race. At present, only the 150-to-350 km short range Prithvi missile can be said to be "fully operational'' in the armed forces. The 700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km Agni-II are still in the process of being inducted into the forces.

India, of course, hopes to gate-crash into the very exclusive club of countries like US, Russia and China, which have both ICBM as well as SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) capabilities, by 2010-2011.

DRDO is working on the K-15 SLBM, having tested it from submersible pontoon launchers till now, with the aim to integrate it on the indigenous nuclear submarines being built under the secretive ATV (advanced technology vessel) project.

Though not in the range of the over 5,000-km SLBMs in the arsenal of US, Russia and China, the 750-km range K-15 will accord India with the desperately-needed third leg of the "nuclear weapon triad''. India currently depends on the Agni missiles as well as fighters like Mirage-2000s as its platforms to deliver nuclear weapons.

DRDO, of course, is also going to shortly conduct the third test of the fledgling two-tier BMD (ballistic missile defence) system, capable of tracking and destroying incoming hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere.

The BMD system was tested for the first time in November 2006 when an "exo-atmospheric'' hypersonic interceptor missile was used to destroy an "enemy'' Prithvi missile at an altitude of 40-50 km.

The second time, in December 2007, an "endo-atmospheric interceptor'' took on an enemy missile at an altitude of 15-km. "After the third test in a month or so, we will test the endo and exo together in an integrated mode later this year,'' said a scientist.

 

[John]

yup taking into account our new land, sea and air based EW systems, their missiles will leave the launch pad and fall right in Pak soil. I also cant wait for us to turn the KALI into a full scale radar controlled weapon to disable incoming threats.

 

[Kumar]

yup taking into account our new land, sea and air based EW systems, their missiles will leave the launch pad and fall right in Pak soil. I also cant wait for us to turn the KALI into a full scale radar controlled weapon to disable incoming threats.

How many of the Indian missiles operational as compared to the Pakistani missile. I think they are definetly ahead of us as compared to missiles. But yes, anti missile we are far ahead than them and China both.

 

[John]

How many of the Indian missiles operational as compared to the Pakistani missile. I think they are definetly ahead of us as compared to missiles. But yes, anti missile we are far ahead than them and China both.

Well we have enough numbers of Prithvi missiles, AGni 1/2. now with Agni-2 using High altitude motors, added stages and RVs we can hit targets as far as over 4500 km and since Agni-3 will undergo another test flight before final induction as of now we have enough to counter PAK and China well enough. In 2006, the first Brahmos regiment was formed, a regiment has 3 to 4 batteries of 6 mobile launchers, hence a regiment is capable of delivering 54 to 72 brahmos in a moments notice. The army is raising two more regiments with block 2 variants hence by beginning next year, we'll have 3 regiments capable of laying down 216 Brahmos in a moments notice, plus missiles in storage means by now we already have well over 300 Brahmos. Block-1 regiment missiles will also receive the new seeker hence making every single one in our inventory a block-2 version. Navy also has many of them already.

But hey our missiles undergo lost more tests and are simply more reliable, the Paks test once and think it works. They may have numbers but their numbers wont mean anything once we mass induct PAD/AAD by 2012.

 

[Kumar]

Well we have enough numbers of Prithvi missiles, AGni 1/2. now with Agni-2 using High altitude motors, added stages and RVs we can hit targets as far as over 4500 km and since Agni-3 will undergo another test flight before final induction as of now we have enough to counter PAK and China well enough. In 2006, the first Brahmos regiment was formed, a regiment has 3 to 4 batteries of 6 mobile launchers, hence a regiment is capable of delivering 54 to 72 brahmos in a moments notice. The army is raising two more regiments with block 2 variants hence by beginning next year, we'll have 3 regiments capable of laying down 216 Brahmos in a moments notice, plus missiles in storage means by now we already have well over 300 Brahmos. Block-1 regiment missiles will also receive the new seeker hence making every single one in our inventory a block-2 version. Navy also has many of them already.

But hey our missiles undergo lost more tests and are simply more reliable, the Paks test once and think it works. They may have numbers but their numbers wont mean anything once we mass induct PAD/AAD by 2012.

Do we have the production lines to make these in huge numbers?

 

[LETHALFORCE]

BrahMos-2 Production Plans Lay Ground Work For Indian Cruise Missile

BrahMos-2 Production Plans Lay Ground Work For Indian Cruise Missile


by Martin Sieff
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 07, 2008
The rapid development of the BrahMos joint Indian-Russian supersonic cruise missile project documents important and usually overlooked truths about the triangular Russian-U.S.-Indian strategic relationship.
First -- despite all the optimism of the Bush administration and all its efforts over the past seven years -- India remains fundamentally allied to Russia rather than the United States.

Russian analysts claim that Washington is currently putting pressure on India to buy the excellent F-18/A Super Hornet combat fighter and abandon its traditional reliance on Russian Sukhoi interceptors.

These reports even claim that the Bush administration has offered to provide the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk free of charge as a sweetener to the deal as Russia has lagged so badly in its work on turning its own old aircraft carrier the Admiral Gorshkov into a modern combat carrier for the Indian navy.

However, it has yet to be seen if those reports will be confirmed or -- even if they are -- whether New Delhi will take the bait. In the meantime, India's overall pattern of arms purchases of old-fashioned but still crucially important advanced weapons systems in the sea, on the land and in the air remains overwhelmingly dependent on Russia. And this pattern has been strengthening rather than weakening.

As we have discussed in our companion Defense Focus columns, in December India confirmed an order for 347 state-of-the-art Russian T-90S Main Battle Tanks -- an order even larger than the 310 MBTs it bought from Moscow in 2001.

In the United States, democratic, English-speaking free market, rule-of-law India is routinely seen as a strong and consistent U.S. ally while China is seen -- correctly -- as an ever closer strategic ally of the Soviet Union.

After all, in 2005 and 2007 Russia and China carried out two series of major military exercises together involving their most advanced and well equipped navies, air forces, combat troops and elite formations.

Never at any time during the worst period of the Cold War from 1949 to 1962 and the public Sino-Soviet split did the communist leaders of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China ever agree to any such joint exercises or efforts to ensure full tactical interoperability in war between their combat forces.

Yet when we look at the pattern of Russian arms sales to India and China, the opposite dynamic appears. Russian arms sales to China are stalled and, as we have noted before, that arms trade is in a state of deadlock and has been for at least two years.

The Chinese have a long shopping list of excellent Russian land and air warfare combat systems they want to buy, but the Kremlin refuses to sell them any of them. Yet Russia is freely selling several of these jewels in its arms industry crown to India.

In the case of the BrahMos cruise missile, it has even agreed to allow co-production on Indian territory.

The Russians do not appear to be worried that because of India's open society and warm relations with the United States, production secrets of the BrahMos will fall into U.S. hands.

It may be that they have full confidence in India's security precautions in this regard. Or even that they are confident that the U.S. defense sector and the U.S. Department of Defense would not, or could not, take advantage of such sensitive data even if they could lay their hands on it.

Certainly, the Pentagon and major U.S. defense contractors have so far not shown any real sense of interest or urgency in replacing or upgrading their accurate and stealth-capable but still subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Modalities of BrahMos-II project to be finalized soon

Modalities of BrahMos-II project to be finalized soon

September 1st, 2009 - 3:59 pm ICT by ANI -


Tiruchirapalli, Sep. 1 (ANI): The modalities for developing hypersonic missile BrahMos-II by the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace are in the final phase of finalization.

BrahMos Aerospace CEO and managing director A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters here on Tuesday that a final shape of the project, aimed at developing the aerial version of BrahMos missile that could traverse at speeds between Mach 5 to Mach 7, would emerge shortly. The design team had already been lined up and discussions would be held shortly between the joint venture partners on investments, sharing of technical responsibilities, administration and sharing of manufacturing facility infrastructure, he added.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, which has a capability of carrying 300 kilograms conventional warheads at a speed of around 2.8 Mach, has already been inducted by the Army and the Navy.

Work related to the design and development of this version had been fruitful and the advanced missile, which weighs 0.5 tonne less than that of the three-tonne land version BrahMos, was ready and the company awaited the modified SUKOI-30 MKI aircraft that would carry the weapon.

Pillai said he was hopeful that the target for induction of the air version set for 2012 would be achieved.

After being fitted on an aircraft, BrahMos will be the only cruise missile with the capability of being launched from land, sea and air, he said.

To a query on export potential of BrahMos missile, Pillai said a number countries evinced keen interest in it, but the priority was to meet the high domestic requirement.

For meeting the demand, the company was in the process of upgrading the production infrastructure at multiple locations besides enhancing component suppliers by including new large and medium sized industries.

On BrahMos Aeropsace’s Thiruvananthapuram facility, Pillai said seven acres of land in possession of Indian Air force adjacent to the main campus was expected to be handed over to BrahMos Aerospace shortly. (ANI)

 

[marcos]

Sir,
Can you give me one information.......As brahmos corp is a company..if it employs Russian technicians as its employee....can it evade the norm that binds Russia from developing a missile with a range more than 300 km ...in a joint venture with India.

 

[Daredevil]

Sir,
Can you give me one information.......As brahmos corp is a company..if it employs Russian technicians as its employee....can it evade the norm that binds Russia from developing a missile with a range more than 300 km ...in a joint venture with India.

There is no problem if there is exchange of technicians from Russia, the problem is with transfer of missile technology with >300km range per se.