Hypersonic Missiles

p2prada

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LETHALFORCE

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I know p2p this range has been a thorn in the side for Brahmos since the beginning, but we still have shauriya and Nirbhay as alternatives until this range issue is resolved, and since shauriya is cannisterized it can be mass produced and stored for a long time.
 

youngindian

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Russia and India To Develop Supersonic Missile Invincible to Interception

16.10.2009

Russia and India will start the development of a new supersonic missile nearly invincible to interception. No army in the world has anything similar to it. The sum of the investment has not been defined yet, but it can be expected to reach billions of dollars.The missile is to become a successor of the supersonic missile BrahMos (known as Yahont in the Russian army) that is now installed on ships, land missile complexes and may soon be installed on Su-30 MKI fighter jets and submarines. This possibility was discussed on Tuesday at the meeting of an intergovernmental committee on military and technical collaboration that took place in Moscow and was chaired by Russian and Indian Defense Ministers, Anatoly Serdyukov and Arackaparambil Kurien Antony.

The missile was named in honor of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. BrahMos is considered to be a successful Russian-Indian joint project. It is unique since it’s the only cruise missile in the world that can be launched both as a single unit and a group. Its highly intelligent operational system allows the missile to reach the speed of Mach 3.0, which is three times faster than the speed of the subsonic American Tomahawk cruise-missile). BrahMos can engage any sea target, and a group of these missiles can destroy an entire ship formation.

The missiles are so clever that they not only detect a target but develop a plan of attack based on the enemy’s air defense. They know exactly which target is the primary one, which of them is an attacker and which is a defender. When the main target is destroyed, they re-prioritize and continue with the attack. Now even more advanced missile is on the way.

“These intentions mean that Delhi has strategic goals, and I believe they are realistic,” said Alexander Lukyanov, head of the Scientific Development and Production Center where the missile was designed.

On Tuesday, India confirmed its intentions of the joint development of the fifth generation of fighter jets and financing of modernization of Admiral Gorshkov cruiser.

Russia and India To Develop Supersonic Missile Invincible to Interception - Pravda.Ru
 

LETHALFORCE

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X-51 Hypersonic Cruise Missile - Fastest Cruise Missile

X-51 Hypersonic Cruise Missile - Fastest Cruise Missile

Imagine having the ability to strike anywhere in the world within one hour. The X-51 is an amazing hypersonic cruise missile that travels 600 miles in just ten minutes (approximately 3600 MPH or Mach 5).


Compared with the Tomahawk Missile which travels at a mere 550 MPH, the X51 gives the US the ability to strike enemies quickly before they can evade. As U.S. Strategic Command’s deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler puts it, the goal of the X51 is “to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes.”

The power of this weapon once it reaches its unfortunate target is amazing.

Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the strength of steel. Just above the target, the warheads detonate, showering the area with thousands of rods-each one up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.

The X-51 Will be the most advanced cruise / long distance missile in the world when it is completed, although there have been protests that the X-51 could trigger a nuclear war. A test run of this weapon in 2008 could appear to be heading toward another nuclear power during portions of its flight pattern which could be provoking. More about this concept can be read at Popular Mechanics
 

LETHALFORCE

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Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike Weapon

Any idea which is the fastest cruise missile in the world ?
X-51 Hypersonic Cruise Missile: The Pentagon's Prompt Global Strike Weapon Plan - Popular Mechanics

Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike Weapon


The mission: Attack anywhere in the world in less than an hour. But is the Pentagon's bold program a critical new weapon for hitting elusive targets, or a good way to set off a nuclear war?
By Noah Shachtman
Diagrams by Kakofonia



A tip sets the plan in motion — a whispered warning of a North Korean nuclear launch, or of a shipment of biotoxins bound for a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Word races through the American intelligence network until it reaches U.S. Strategic Command headquarters, the Pentagon and, eventually, the White House. In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class submarine surfaces, ready for the president's command to launch.

When the order comes, the sub shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into the sky. Within 2 minutes, the missile is traveling at more than 20,000 ft. per second. Up and over the oceans and out of the atmosphere it soars for thousands of miles. At the top of its parabola, hanging in space, the Trident's four warheads separate and begin their screaming descent down toward the planet. Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the strength of steel. Just above the target, the warheads detonate, showering the area with thousands of rods-each one up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.

If Pentagon strategists get their way, there will be no place on the planet to hide from such an assault. The plan is part of a program — in slow development since the 1990s, and now quickly coalescing in military circles — called Prompt Global Strike. It will begin with modified Tridents. But eventually, Prompt Global Strike could encompass new generations of aircraft and armaments five times faster than anything in the current American arsenal. One candidate: the X-51 hypersonic cruise missile, which is designed to hit Mach 5 — roughly 3600 mph. The goal, according to the U.S. Strategic Command's deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler, is "to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes."

The question is whether such an attack can be deployed without triggering World War III: Those tungsten-armed Tridents look, and fly, exactly like the deadliest weapons in the American nuclear arsenal.

QUICK HIT
The military is convinced that in the coming years it will need to act with this kind of speed against threats — terrorist leaders, smuggled nuclear or chemical arms — that emerge and disappear in a flash. There may be only hours, or minutes, to respond. "We know how to strike precisely. We know how to strike at long distances," says Kehler, whose office is in charge of the Defense Department's Global Strike mission. "What's different now is this sense of time."

Sneak Attack

Click to enlarge
The leading candidates to deliver Prompt Global Strike's swift knockout punch are the sub-launched Trident II missile and the X-51, a cruise missile launched from a B-52 and boosted to supersonic speed by a rocket. A scramjet takes it hypersonic.
Every strategist remembers Aug. 20, 1998, when the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group, stationed in the Arabian Sea, launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at an Al Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan, hoping to take out Osama Bin Laden. With a top speed of 550 mph, the Tomahawks made the 1100-mile trip in 2 hours. By then, Bin Laden was gone — missed by less than an hour, according to Richard A. Clarke, former head of U.S. counterterrorism.

The American military already has weapons that can destroy just about anything in a matter of minutes: nuclear missiles. That terrifying capability was designed to contain Soviet adversaries. But as the Cold War recedes into memory, U.S. strategists worry that our nuclear threat is no longer credible — that we are too muscle-bound for our own good. Are we really prepared to wipe out Tehran in retribution for a single terrorist attack? Kill millions of Chinese for invading Taiwan? The answer is no.

Paradoxically, the weaker our enemies have grown, the less ominous our arsenal has become. Military theorists call it self-deterrence. "In today's environment, we've got zeros and ones. You can decide to engage with nuclear weapons — or not," says Capt. Terry J. Benedict, who runs the Navy's conventional Trident program from a nondescript office a few miles from the Pentagon. "The nation's leadership needs an intermediate step-to take the action required, without crossing to the one."

In 2001, Defense Department planners began searching for something that could hit a foe almost instantly without risking a nuclear holocaust. Most of the solutions — unmanned bombers, faster cruise missiles, hypersonic "glide vehicles" coasting in from space — required a decade or more of development. The Navy, however, had been testing conventionally armed Trident II missiles since 1993. With a few hundred million dollars, strategists said, the first Prompt Global Strike submarines could be ready to go in just two years.

The $60 million conventional missile needs to be far more accurate than the nuclear version. But the multiple warheads can lock onto GPS coordinates while streaking through space. Upon entering the atmosphere, the warheads use flaps to steer to a target. With the Trident II's range of 6000 nautical miles, subs armed with the missiles could threaten a whole continent's worth of enemy positions. "Now," says Benedict, who leads the Trident conversion effort, "we've got the capability to hold all of these targets in all these hot spots at risk at one time."

NUCLEAR AMBIGUITY
Almost immediately, congressional critics and outside analysts attacked the missile plan. Everyone seemed satisfied that, technically, modified Tridents could meet Global Strike's requirements. But the Pentagon can't explain how the weapon will be deployed and who will be its intended target. "I just don't think they've got a plan for using these things," says a frustrated senior congressional aide.

First, there's the matter of intelligence. If a president is going to launch the first intercontinental ballistic missile attack in history, he'll need overwhelming evidence. Our ability to nail down that kind of quality information is patchy, at best. On March 19, 2003, the United States launched 40 cruise missiles at three locations outside Baghdad in hopes of killing Saddam Hussein and other senior military officials. It turned out the former Iraqi leader wasn't in any of the locations; the strikes killed at least a dozen people, although it's not clear if they were civilians or leadership targets.

The mission failed even though friendly forces controlled the area. At the heart of Prompt Global Strike is a much darker scenario: American troops are far from their intended target — or the enemy's air defenses are too tough to penetrate. "So let me get this straight," says Jeffrey Lewis, a Harvard University nuclear energy and weapons analyst. "We've got exquisite, fleeting intelligence in an area of immediate concern, but no forces nearby and, miraculously, a sub in just the right spot to attack. I suppose there's some chance of that. But it's pretty small."


Video still shows X-51 predecessor being test fired.
Click here for the full video.
More difficult to explain is how a conventional Trident could be launched without provoking a crisis even bigger than the one that it was meant to solve. The Navy's plan calls for arming Ohio class subs with two conventional and 22 nuclear Trident II missiles. (The Navy intends to cut its Ohio class fleet from 18 to 14 subs, with 12 in the water at any one time.) To outside observers, the subs' conventional and nuclear weapons would appear identical — the same size, the same speed, shooting from the same location.

Traditionally, the U.S. strategy is to shoot missiles over the North Pole. But the current, most likely Prompt Global Strike targets, North Korea and Iran, lie south of China and Russia — which would put those countries right under a pole-launched flight path. "For many minutes during their flight patterns, these missiles might appear to be headed towards targets in these nations," a congressional study notes. That could have world-changing consequences. "The launch of such a missile," Russian president Vladimir Putin said in his 2006 state of the nation address, "could provoke an inappropriate response from one of the nuclear powers, could provoke a full-scale counterattack using strategic nuclear forces.

The Navy and Strategic Command have proposed all kinds of fixes to address what a Senate Armed Services committee described as Prompt Global Strike's "nuclear ambiguity issues." The subs could be positioned in different locations for a conventional attack than for a nuclear one, military leaders argue. (But that could put the boats out of position for an instant strike.) Hotlines to Moscow and Beijing could warn leaders in those capitals of conventional missile attacks. That is, if those leaders take us at our word — and don't warn their allies in Pyongyang or Tehran to get out of the missile's way.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a press conference, didn't seem that concerned. "Everyone in the world would know that [the missile] was conventional," he said, "after it hit within 30 minutes."

Congress is decidedly less blasé. The House and Senate have ordered the Pentagon to come up with something more certain before they'll provide the $127 million requested in this year's budget for conventional Trident modification.

WAVE-RIDING WEAPON
Some officials in the Defense Department want to answer concerns about the Tridents with more radical solutions: exotic, high-tech devices capable of outracing any machine in their class to catch fleeting foes. If these weapons work as planned — and that's a big if — they could let the Pentagon launch lightning-quick attacks without risking a worldwide nuclear storm.

On the coffee table in his cavernous office in the Pentagon's E Ring, Air Force chief scientist Mark J. Lewis has a model of such a machine, a 14-ft.-long missile called the X-51 WaveRider. With an angled nose, flaps in the middle and an inlet on the underbelly, the device looks like a cross between a spaceship and a futuristic cruise missile. It's designed to go nearly seven times faster than a Tomahawk — a flight from the Arabian Sea to eastern Afghanistan would take 20 minutes — and destroy targets with its own kinetic energy. Test flights are scheduled for 2008.

The pressure, drag and high temperatures associated with hypersonic speeds (typically, greater than Mach 5, or 3600 mph) used to be considered too extreme for an aircraft to handle in a controlled way. Only ballistic missiles and spacecraft burning rocket fuel, shooting into space and roaring back to Earth, could go that fast.

What the X-51 does is to turn some of the most brutal effects of hypersonic flight to its advantage. Take shock waves, for example. Bursting through the air at a hypersonic rate produces a train of waves, one after the other, which can drag down an aircraft. But the X-51 is a "wave rider," with a sharp nose shaped to make the waves break at precisely the right angle. All of the pressure is directed beneath the missile, lifting it up. The shock waves also compress the air to help fuel the X-51's combustion process.

The craft is the same size and shape as a Joint Air-to- Surface Standoff Missile, so it can be attached to a B-52 or fighter jet. It runs on standard JP-7 jet fuel, not on rocket fuel, so it fits in neatly with the military's existing logistical chain. The X-51 is made from a fairly standard nickel alloy, not from exotic materials. And the advanced engine technology is very real. In 2004, NASA broke speed records while testing its X-43A, a precursor to the X-51 (see "Breakthrough Awards 2005," Nov. 2005). In a final test flight, the 12-ft.-long aircraft hit 7000 mph — nearly Mach 10. In other words, the X-51 is not just some lab experiment; it's being designed from the start to deploy. "I've got tremendous confidence in it working," the Air Force's Mark J. Lewis says.

That doesn't mean the X-51 will be in competition with a conventional Trident. It will have a range of only 600 nautical miles. And it first needs to be lifted into the air by a plane, then accelerated by a rocket-fueled booster before its hypersonic engine kicks in. But if the 2008 test flight is a success, the X-51 will be the first weapon other than a ballistic missile to fly at hypersonic speeds.

NO CONFUSION
The Trident II iteration of Prompt Global Strike foresaw a pushbutton war, fought from the White House. It assumed that the United States would have few allies or bases abroad from which to attack. Local commanders would be largely circumvented.

But alternate scenarios being drawn up let U.S. forces act much as they do today, only faster. Hypersonic weapons could make that happen. Put an X-51-equipped plane in the air, and it could enable commanders to hit targets for hundreds of miles around in minutes. Tips could be acted on instantly; subs wouldn't have to be in a perfect position in order to strike. Intelligence wouldn't have to race all the way to the Oval Office. Wrong information would produce local damage. And because the X-51 wouldn't be confused with a nuke — or have to fly threateningly over nuclear-armed countries — "you don't worry about starting World War III" when you score a direct hit, Lewis notes.

Hypersonic technology will take longer to develop than a conventional Trident. But the X-51, and weapons like it, might make the most sense for the Global Strike arsenal. After all, they reduce potential fallout from the riskiest part of the program: the human element.
 

LETHALFORCE

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How the X-51 Works



While Trident II missiles with conventional warheads could be deployed in a few years, it may take a decade or more to develop the X-51 WaveRider. The WaveRider destroys targets by simply crashing into them at hypersonic speeds. But the technology in this remarkable missile may have wider applications, including ultrafast planes and new space vehicles. Designed by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney for the Air Force Research Laboratory, the X-51 uses just one moving part — the fuel pump — to hit Mach 5, or 3600 mph.
Rocket booster The X-51 is carried to 45,000 ft. by a B-52 bomber or a fighter jet, then released. A rear-mounted Army Tactical Missile Systems rocket kicks in to propel the 1600-pound missile to Mach 4.5 and 100,000 ft. The rocket then drops away and the X-51's engine takes over.
Internal inlet The missile's sharp nose funnels shock waves produced at hypersonic speeds into a rectangular opening on the craft's belly. The shock waves compress the air, eliminating mechanical parts that normally do this.
Isolator This component adjusts airflow — which can reach 2500 pounds per square foot — to a stable pressure for the combustor. Slowing airflow increases drag on the vehicle, but allows for more complete combustion.
Combustor Thrust is created when the compressed air mixes with a mist of JP-7 jet fuel and is ignited. Because hypersonic speeds generate sustained temperatures of up to 4500 degrees, the propellant also acts as a coolant — and prevents the X-51’s engine walls from melting.

Airflow PM consulted NASA to estimate the fluid dynamics for external airflow around the nose, engine, stabilizers and tail of an X-51 traveling at Mach 5. The rear contour illustrates the engine exhaust plume shape.

 

LETHALFORCE

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It's comparable to Brahmos II, which was lab tested at 5.26 Mach
Brahmos 2 is around MACH 6+ so Brahmos maybe a equal or a little faster, both work by scramjets, X-51 was expected to be ready by 2009 it has not happened yet, the demonstrator test was suppose to have taken place in 2008 but that did not happen either, Boeing has not released any news on what the status of the missile is??But the range of the X-51 claims to be a global missile missile and the release of the "metal storm"makes it a lot different than Brahmos 2.
 

AkhandBharat

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I'm confused. Is it a technology demostrator for a scramjet Hypersonic transport vehicle or a missile?

That doesn't mean the X-51 will be in competition with a conventional Trident. It will have a range of only 600 nautical miles. And it first needs to be lifted into the air by a plane, then accelerated by a rocket-fueled booster before its hypersonic engine kicks in. But if the 2008 test flight is a success, the X-51 will be the first weapon other than a ballistic missile to fly at hypersonic speeds.
X-51 Hypersonic Cruise Missile: The Pentagon's Prompt Global Strike Weapon Plan - Popular Mechanics

And they call it global strike weapon but its range is only 600 miles? It seems comparable to HSTDV that India is developing.
 

LETHALFORCE

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It is a missile with Global reach


U.S. Strategic Command’s deputy commander Lt. Gen. C. Robert Kehler puts it, the goal of the X51 is “to strike virtually anywhere on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes.”

The power of this weapon once it reaches its unfortunate target is amazing.

Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the strength of steel. Just above the target, the warheads detonate, showering the area with thousands of rods-each one up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.

The X-51 Will be the most advanced cruise / long distance missile in the world when it is completed,
 

AkhandBharat

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No, the reach is not global. Its only 600 miles.

Moreover, its not "the only fastest cruise missile in the world". Scramjet research has been going on in India for a while and Brahmos 2 has been lab tested at 5.26 mach, so they cannot claim to be "the only fastest" Moreover, why do they have to use a plane to lift it off first? That seems like stupidity to me.

Moreover, Mach 7 would mean around 5600 mph and not 13000 mph as the article states.
 

LETHALFORCE

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No, the reach is not global. Its only 600 miles.

Moreover, its not "the only fastest cruise missile in the world". Scramjet research has been going on in India for a while and Brahmos 2 has been lab tested at 5.26 mach, so they cannot claim to be "the only fastest" Moreover, why do they have to use a plane to lift it off first? That seems like stupidity to me.
True AB I guess they mean if it is shot from a plane or fired from a sub it will have global reach other than that the missile range is 600 miles, the first article made it seem like a ICBM type cruise missile when in reality it is not, but the concept of firing tungsten rods is interesting rather than having a warhead that release massive kinetic energy on impact.
 

AkhandBharat

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Yeah, While I don't doubt the fact that Boeing is testing hypersonic cruise missiles, the author of this article you posted seems to be either misled or got too excited.

13000 mph is Mach 16, not Mach 7, which seems impossible by today's technology to me. Also, lifting a cruise missile from a plane doesn't make its reach global. That way, any country can load the missile up on boeing 777 jet and call it a global strike missile.

Mach 7 is still impressive though, and India is trying to use this HSDTV to create RLVs for future missions to the moon to reduce mission costs.
 

nitesh

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IISc working towards recoverable hypersonic missiles- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

BANGALORE: Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) along with Indian defence agencies are developing technology to build recoverable hypersonic missiles which will be half the size of the current missiles. This missile will have the potential of hitting a target over 5,000 km away at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach5) and can also be used to launch satellites at low cost, a top scientist working on the project told ET. No time frame has been announced as yet on when the missile work will be completed. This is of special significance as institutions like the Nasa is experimenting on unmanned projects where they will use hypersonic flights to conduct space exploration.

Missiles which fly at Mach 3-4 (three to four times the speed of sound) belong to the high supersonic class, while hypersonic missiles can fly at more than Mach 5. India’s longest-range missile, Agni III, is capable of hitting targets 3,500 km away and the forthcoming Agni V which has a range of about 5,000-6,000 km is expected to be test-fired in 2010.

“The missile will be much smaller than the current ones. It will be more like an aircraft which can come back to its base after dropping the weapon and need not be huge like the Chinese Dongfeng intercontinental ballistic missile,” a scientist who did not wish to be quoted said. “This technology is not yet available in any other country and it will help better access to space, reconnaissance-strike and global reach.”

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday admitted that they were developing this technology, but work was still at its preliminary stage. IISc is working on some parts of this intercontinental ballistic missile which will be made of materials like composites and Titanium. This will prevent it from being detected by enemy radars and observation systems. It is this innovation which has attracted the interest of several US aviation sector majors. Since it is important to keep the missile cool, it will work on the scram-jet technology where combustion of fuel takes place in a chamber in the missile under Mach 5 flight conditions, which is different from the current system of collecting the air from the atmosphere during the flight to burn the rocket fuel inside the combustion chamber.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp company is also working on flight testing hypersonic hydrocarbon-fuelled and cooled scramjet engine working on Mach 5 flight conditions. (A scramjet consists of a constricted tube through which air is compressed and it has a nozzle through which the exhaust jet leaves at higher speed than the inlet air).

The scientist said that they will also use a technology developed by IISc on this missile that has the potential to increase the range of missiles and satellite launch vehicles by at least 40%. The enhanced range is made possible by adding a special-purpose coating of chromium metal to the blunt nose cone of missiles and launch vehicles.

As reported by ET earlier, objects such as missiles fly at hypersonic velocities which are more than five times the speed of sound and encounter atmospheric drag because of friction. The chromium coating works by building temporary heat and pushing the stagnating gas away to create an easier path.

The scientist also said that various Indian defence agencies and the US Airforce have shown interest in this special coating technology which evaporates once the object has re-entered the atmosphere and additional energy is not required to reduce drag.
 

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New paradigms of deterrence in Asia - upiasia.com

New paradigms of deterrence in Asia


Kolkata, India — Asia is witnessing a new game of swords and shields, which is taking players to ocean depths as well as outer space. China and India have taken the lead in this, with Japan seriously contemplating deploying systems it has been developing. The focus is on anti-access strategies and nuclear deterrence.

The proliferation of anti-ballistic missile systems is making Asian countries rethink offensive paradigms. Almost all major regional and offshore players in Asia are now pursuing ballistic missile defense systems.

The United States is of course the leader in this game and has helped its chief allies, Japan and South Korea, mature in this area through technology partnerships. India has an active BMD program in collaboration with Israel and various missiles under this program have undergone successful tests in recent times.

Naturally, the appearance of ballistic missile shields along its periphery is a major cause of concern for China, since it degrades China’s key long-range offensive strike architecture in the form of legacy ballistic missile systems. Moreover, it gives Washington and its partners breathing space to counter Chinese adventurism. It also effectively diminishes the ability of Pakistan and North Korea to blackmail India and Japan respectively.

Understanding the need to rebalance the situation, China has now begun to develop a range of counters under its 863 Program, an advanced state technology development plan that focuses on new-generation land- and submarine-based cruise missiles, faster ballistic missiles with terminal guidance and multiple warheads, and space-based offensive systems.

Targeting is accomplished through the deployment of a homegrown satellite positioning system, synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical satellites and over-the-horizon radars. The systems could come in handy for targeting U.S. carrier groups at sea and defeating BMDs in a nuclear attack.

Pakistan too has developed its Babur cruise missile, which is a medium-range missile similar to China’s long-range CJ-10.

While there has been much commentary on China’s counter-space capabilities, it is likely that China is also looking at space to launch land attacks. It can be argued that its Shenlong Space Plane project may lead to an orbital bomber and its interest in formation-flying satellites and space stations could lead to the pre-positioning of nuclear warheads in space. Indeed, the concept could be similar to the former Soviet Union’s Polyus program of the late 1980s, devised as an asymmetric counter to former U.S. President Ronald Regan’s strategic defense initiative derided as the Star Wars program.

The development of swords and shields however cuts both ways. China is itself engaged in developing an antiballistic missile shield, banking on both Russian and indigenous systems.

It should be noted that China’s test of a direct ascent anti-satellite system in 2007 also indicated the ability to intercept re-entering warheads, since the technology for either effort is related. Obviously, this would be of concern to countries like India and Japan, who want to retain the option of punitive long-range strikes against China in the event of hostilities. India in particular would want to maintain a credible nuclear second-strike capability against China’s cities.

Although India has a no-first-use policy with regard to launching nuclear attacks, for a survivable nuclear deterrent it recently launched its first nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2012. When deployed, it will carry as its primary armaments 12 nuclear-capable K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a range of just 700 kilometers.

But purists in India and elsewhere have dismissed the weapon’s load as too short ranged to achieve strategic objectives. However, a 3,500-kilometer SLBM for the Arihant and larger derivatives seems to be on the anvil as well. However, the deterrence value of the submarine with its initial armaments cannot be dismissed outright.

Several critical targets in China and elsewhere are right on the shoreline. Some analysts believe that ballistic missiles with long flight times will increasingly run the risk of detection and may not make it past a multi-layered BMD system.

Instead, relatively short-ranged maneuverable ballistic missiles that can be fired at depressed trajectories and yet fly at hypersonic speeds will prove difficult to intercept and also retain the stealth advantage if the submarine is quiet enough. Missiles of this class – sometimes termed quasi-ballistic, as they do not follow a purely ballistic trajectory, include the Russian Iskander, the U.S. Army’s tactical missile system, of which a naval version is proposed, the Chinese Dong-Feng 15 and India’s K-15 ballistic missiles.

Such weapons make even more sense from a cost benefit point of view when deployed on hybrid air-independent propulsion submarines such as the Russian B-90 Sarov. It remains to be seen whether India will move in this direction.

India also has hypersonic systems in development like the Brahmos 2 cruise missile and the Defense Research and Development Organization’s lead hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle program. In years to come the former may form the cornerstone of India’s anti-access strategy at sea, and the latter could give it the ability to strike global targets at short notice.

Long-range firepower has emerged as a priority and these are a few relevant technologies being developed for “new deterrence.”

The quiet man of Asia – at least as far as military development is concerned – is also looking seriously at new offensive paradigms to keep China at bay. One would note that Japan has the world’s greatest “breakout” capability, which refers to Japan’s dormant weapon programs that can be activated fairly quickly if required.

Japan’s Technical Research and Development Institute continues active research into stealth technology for both manned and unmanned systems, which is an indication of the direction Japan may be headed.

It is conceivable that in the next decade Japan may begin to deploy extreme stealth and long-range cruise missiles on air-independent propulsion submarines that can strike hardened targets in China and North Korea. Indeed it can even go nuclear since the availability of fissile material is not an issue given its Monju fast breeder reactor.

Also, Japan is a pioneer in space exploration and can match the technological moves of China to possibly “weaponize” space.

The buildup in the areas of BMDs and precision-guided strategic munitions and the modernization of nuclear forces resemble the “new triad” being pursued by the United States.

It could be argued that India and China, Asia’s two largest nations, are developing weapon systems that mirror similar pursuits by the United States. This is not surprising, as their growing economies enable them to become more ambitious in developing their military programs. This suggests it is time now to look beyond the Outer Space Treaty and negotiate a new one, taking into account the reality of the new triad.
 

rocky2

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Hi friends i have seen some posts in Pak def forum saying that PAK missile technology is always superior to Indian missiles. When India has longer range and more variety of missiles than Pak, then how will it be inferior to pak technology. Is Indian missiles are non-reliable compared to them. Can anyone explain me regarding this...:help:......:india:
 

Daredevil

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Hi friends i have seen some posts in Pak def forum saying that PAK missile technology is always superior to Indian missiles. When India has longer range and more variety of missiles than Pak, then how will it be inferior to pak technology. Is Indian missiles are non-reliable compared to them. Can anyone explain me regarding this...:help:......:india:
rocky2, it is all propaganda by vested interests. Don't buy such delusional stuff easily, do some research on Indian missiles and go through the threads on Missiles in this forum to understand how advanced and reliable Indian missile systems are.

Here, go through this forum for more

Bombs / Missiles / WMD - Defence Forum Of India | DFI |
 

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