Indian Ballistic Missile Defense System

[nitesh]

Govt nod for Rs 4k cr Israeli surface-to-air missile system - India - NEWS - The Times of India

 

[pavanvenkatesh]

Heres a good read from frontline india about the struggle of DRDO in developing these technologies when US and other countries refused to sell or help them a very good and inspiring read

 

[Daredevil]

Fresh anti-ballistic missile tests soon

Aditya Phatak / DNA

Fresh tests of the endo-atmospheric anti-ballistic missile system may be conducted in December-January, VK Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister, said on Wednesday.

“The first phase of the missile defence shield has been going on for years now and fresh tests are likely in December-January,” he said at a seminar on fuel cell technology.

The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), which Saraswat heads, aims to develop interceptors that can destroy intermediate-range ballistic missiles. In phase-II, DRDO will develop missiles to neutralise inter-continental ballistic missiles. The phase, however, is in the design stage.

 

[nitesh]

good article, please read it full:

India & Israel’s Barak SAM Development Project(s)

 

[bsn4u1985]

India eyes 'Patriot missile'

India eyes 'Patriot missile'

India could be poised to sign a multi billion dollar arms deal with the United States to purchase patriot missiles. Before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with US President Barack Obama, the Indian Army has requested the Americans for a briefing of the Patriot-3 Anti-Missile System.

The briefings are likely early next year after which demonstrations could follow. The Patriot 3 anti-missile system is a guided missile system designed to detect, target and hit incoming missiles. It was initially used in the first gulf war and has subsequently been fine tuned. The C-17 military transport aircraft is used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo. It has the ability to rapidly deploy a combat unit to a potential battle area and sustain it with on-going supplies.

The Patriot missile system has been used extensively in the past in the Gulf war in 1991 as well as in the Iraqi war.

The sytem includes the missiles themselves, the missile launcher, which holds, transports, aims and launches the missiles and a radar antenna to detect incoming missiles.

Meanwhile the Indian Air Force has already informed the Defence Ministry that it wants ten C-17 military transport aircraft. The aircraft was on show during the India-US training exercises in Agra last month.

India eyes 'Patriot missile'- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos

 

[blade]

A BIT OLD BUT INTERESTING: http://sniperz11.blogspot.com/2008/02/drdos-secret-radar-facility.html

India developing ballistic missiles to destroy IRBMs, ICBMs

Visakhapatnam, Jan 7 - By 2010 India will have an indigenous ballistic missile defence system to intercept and destroy intermediate ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), a top defence official said here Monday.

'We are developing a robust anti-missile defence system that will have high-speed interceptions for engaging ballistic missiles in the 5,000 km class and above. We have recently demonstrated the capability to handle such targets up to 2,000 to 2,500 km,' Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief controller V.K. Saraswat told IANS on the sidelines of the 95th Indian Science Congress.
.....
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Our BMD is designed to intercept the enemy even at high altitudes and long distances and destroy it before it could enter our region,' Saraswat said.
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The advanced BMD is at a design stage and will go on trial in 2009-2010. With all the elements of the system such as the long-range tracking radar, the multi-function fire control radar, the very intelligent and potent mission control centre for deciding the launching of the interceptor, the BMD will be able to detect IRBMs and ICBMs of any country and destroy on target.
.....
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The tracking and fire control radars were developed by state-run DRDO in collaboration with Israel and France. With the development and production being taken up concurrently, the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) in Bangalore has been commissioned to roll out more radars for short, medium and long range use in association with the private sector.
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'LRDE has a full-fledged facility at Kolar to assemble and calibrate the radars required by the defence forces,' Saraswat said.
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This made for interesting reading, especially the reports about the Radar development by LRDE. Dr. Saraswat has confirmed that Israeli and French helped in developing the critical Radars used in the systems. If the missiles are the fists of the BMD system, these radars are the heart, and are probably the most complicated and critical parts.

As it is, the Long Range Tracking Radar (LRTR) developed by LRDE is superior to the Israeli Greenpine radar it is based upon, both in terms of Range of detection, as well as the speed of the missile it can detect. The Greenpine can detect targets travelling upto 3 km/s, which limits the Arrow Missile system's interception to Short and Medium range Ballistic missiles. The LRTR can detect upto 6 km/s, which ensures that it can handle even IRBMs, a crucial requirement if we are to be protected against Chinese Missiles as well.

The second interesting bit was the report about LRDE's radar calibration facility in Kolar. This is a new bit of information that wasn't heard before. Being close enough to Bangalore for easy access, while far away from most EMI disturbances, it would be an ideal place to develop and test radars.

I did a bit of searching for this facility on Google Earth, and guess what, found it! Its a sprawling test range located right next to an airfield, which, by the looks of it, was probably abandoned by the Brits or IAF a long time ago. While it did take a while to find the place, with its typical Sarkari style buildings, it sticks out like a sore thumb - something that is a big grouse of mine. If you want a secret facility, at least make sure that it doesn't have a big bulls-eye on it.

Heres a satellite image of the facility. Unfortunately, wasnt able to upload the full size image(4200 x 3400 pixels). If anyone can help with this, please let me know.

Update (March 21): Some more pictures of the same facility.

View attachment 1316
View attachment 1317
Same picture, with the boundary walls highlighted, and captioned.
View attachment 1318
Closeup of the radar site - note the radome. Its diameter is around90 ft.
View attachment 1319
Appears to be the main working area. Note the warehouse size structures and the shipping containers.
View attachment 1320
Buildings to the right of the ones in the picture above.

 

[roma]

is it fair to say that in this specific field of anti - missile defence , that india is actually far ahead of china ? especially in the development ( rather than copying er sorry ... reverse engrg )

 

[LETHALFORCE]

The Space Review: India’s missile defense: changing the nature of the Indo-Pakistani conflict

India’s missile defense: changing the nature of the Indo-Pakistani conflict

by Taylor Dinerman
Monday, January 26, 2009


During a panel talk at New York’s Asia Society on January 21, Professor Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University claimed that some “right wing” forces in the US and India were interested in seeing Pakistan break up and that they imagined that somehow India would be able to “neuter the nukes” and prevent them from getting into unfriendly hands, something he considered highly risky and likely to lead to catastrophe. During the same event former Pakistani diplomat Munir Akram claimed that any war between India and Pakistan would escalate uncontrollably and go nuclear quite quickly.

At this moment, they are both right. The India-Pakistan nuclear stand-off is stalemated to Pakistan’s advantage, in that they can launch (or allow) terror attacks such as the November 2008 one on Mumbai and India can do essentially nothing in response. The unmistakable smugness of the former Pakistani diplomat made this evident. However, this situation will not last forever. India is now seeking way to neutralize the majority of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and within a decade or perhaps a little longer they may come up with a solution.

In 2006 India began testing a missile defense version of its Prithvi medium-range ballistic missile. This test is just one sign that New Delhi is seeking to develop a multi-layer complex that can defend against Pakistan’s nuclear missiles. Due to its liquid-fueled first stage, the Prithvi Air Defense (PAD) is certainly not an ideal system, but it is both available and locally made. The Indian military is comfortable enough with this weapon’s effectiveness to make it their main battlefield ballistic missile for both conventional and nuclear applications.

Even if they give missile defense a big budget and a high priority, it will be many years before India has a moderately effective, indigenous missile defense shield. The claim last year by the head of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) that they will have a multi-layered system ready in 2010 is taken with a grain of salt by observers both inside and outside the subcontinent. However, unless the geopolitical situation radically changes, there is no doubt that India will continue work on the systems for the foreseeable future.

If they wanted to they could buy systems from the US, Israel, or Russia, and they have already bought themselves a pair of Israeli Green Pine radars originally designed for the Arrow ABM system. If they were ready to spend the money they could combine, for example, the US PAC 3 version of the Patriot with the Israeli Arrow and have an effective but limited defense system within a fairly short timeframe. While the US may have blocked India from buying the Israeli system in the past, this no longer would be the case.

What is more likely, though, is that they will continue to build up their own technology while procuring a few items from overseas and entering into collaborative development programs with carefully selected foreign firms. The hard part may not be the interceptors themselves but building up the network of sensors and command and control systems needed to make the whole thing credible.

One requirement will be for some sort of space based early warning system to supplement the powerful long-range radars they will have to deploy both in the air and in the western Himalaya mountains. India is lucky in that it does have a few good places where it could place radars that, if they were powerful enough, could cover most of the possible launch sites. But they will still need satellites to cover the whole of Pakistan and to provide a secure and unambiguous warning of a launch event.

They may choose to build their own heat detecting satellites. The IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) and Cartosat series of remote sensing spacecraft have given India some of the expertise required to build an equivalent of the DSP. Such a system does not have to be as heavy or as sophisticated as the US one; it could, in fact, consist of a larger number of small satellites in low Earth orbit. This would certainly be expensive by Indian standards and would take at least as long to develop and deploy as the indigenous interceptor missiles themselves.
India could, if they wanted to, gain access to the US DSP and SBIRS information, but given the history of the subcontinent, and the shaky basis on which the new US-India relationship rests, the government may not be willing to put its trust in Washington’s goodwill.

Another factor that will add to the expense of this project is the fact that India is a big country and will need a fairly large number of long-range and short-range BMD missiles. The better that they can do in the boost phase the better off they will be, but there are few signs that they, or anyone else except the US, are seriously looking at this capability.

As long as India vigorously pursues this capability it will put Pakistan into the same kind of dilemma that faced the Soviet Union after President Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program in March 1983. Islamabad has neither the resources nor the technology to compete with India in this field. Indian missile defense will not, by itself, prevent a Pakistani “loose nuke” situation, but it will reduce the value of their atomic stockpile.

They also lack the resources to build up a very large and diverse force of reliable, sophisticated, nuclear-tipped missiles that could overwhelm an effective Indian defense system. If they tried to build such a force they would either have to weaken their already limited conventional defense forces or spend themselves into economic oblivion. India’s robust and growing economy is a strategic asset that is slowly but surely making itself felt in the military balance between the two subcontinental rivals.

Taylor Dinerman is an author and journalist based in New York City.

 

[proud_hindustani]

someone please tell me about India's plan to purchase Israeli Arrow missile. I hear Israel has to get a stamp of approval from USA before He sells Arrow missiles to India.

 

[nitesh]

Technology to aid missile-satellite link

The technologies on which the DRDO is working are related to tracking the satellite, command and control network for the interceptor and a laser seeker that can use three dimensional images to guide the kill vehicle. The DRDO expects to have the building blocks ready between 2012 and 2014.


Saraswat denied having any plans to test the anti-satellite weapons to test its efficacy. “It will never be tried out in real life conditions unless there are exigencies. It’s a weapon for deterrence,” he said.

The interceptor will be designed to kill satellites circling the earth at altitudes varying from 275 to 800 km. “Satellites used in network-centric warfare are either in low earth or polar orbit,” he said.

 

[nitesh]

Kill vehicle, a critical aspect: Saraswat

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: V.K. Saraswat, DRDO Director-General and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, said on Sunday that the DRDO had already scored a hat-trick in the past few years, when three of its interceptor missiles (kill vehicles), developed as part of the Ballistic Missile Defence Programme, ripped apart “enemy” ballistic missiles in direct hits mid-flight.

“Developing the [anti-satellite] kill vehicle is the most critical aspect, because the satellite signatures and the ballistic missile signatures are different,” he said. But he added: “I am not building any [anti-satellite] weapon as on today. But I will have all the building blocks ready,” for space security would be a major issue in future.

A fourth interceptor missile test, scheduled for September, would try to bring down an “enemy missile” at an altitude of 120-140 km, he said.

Propulsion technology

The DRDO was keen on bridging the gaps in propulsion technology for battle tanks and aircraft. It was already building the indigenous Kaveri engine for Light Combat Aircraft Tejas. The engine had performed exceedingly well in high-altitude tests in Russia, Dr. Saraswat said. “We want to use the Kaveri engine for the advanced medium combat aircraft. It will also power ships.” The Tejas now flies on General Electric engines.

A naval version of Tejas was getting ready. This twin-seat aircraft would be able to take off from and land on India’s aircraft carriers.

 

[neo29]

India targets China's satellites

The goals for India's anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs may be shifting to accommodate an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon more quickly than previously planned, and this could radically alter the agenda of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is currently in the middle of a three-day visit to India.

"Memories in New Delhi run deep about how India's relative tardiness in developing strategic offensive systems [nuclear weapons] redounded in its relegation on 'judgment day' [when the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968] to the formal category of non-nuclear weapons state," said Sourabh Gupta, senior research associate at Samuels International Associates in Washington, DC.

"With its early support of the former US president George W Bush's ballistic missile defense program and its current drive todevelop anti-ballistic missile/anti-satellite capability, New Delhi is determined not to make the same mistake twice," added Gupta. "If and when globally negotiated restraints are placed on such strategic defensive systems or technologies - perhaps restraints of some sort of ASAT testing/hit-to-kill technologies - India will already have crossed the technical threshold in that regard, and acknowledgement of such status [will be] grand-fathered into any such future agreement."

After watching China's moves since the highly controversial satellite shootdown which China undertook in January 2007, India has now openly declared its desire to match China.

"There is no reason to be surprised. India is anxious to be seen as not lagging behind China - ergo - if China has an ASAT program, India can do it, too. That's all there is to it." said Uzi Rubin, a defense consultant and former head of Israel's missile defense organization.

China was not specifically mentioned by V K Saraswat, director general of India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), when he announced at the 97th Indian Science Congress earlier this month that India had begun to develop an anti-satellite capability. He declared that India is "working to ensure space security and protect our satellites. At the same time, we are also working on how to deny the enemy access to its space assets."

There is no doubt as to the identity of the "enemy" in question.

"The Indians are engaged in a major active missile defense program which, because of the technological affinity between missile defense and ASAT, could eventually grow up to the latter," said Rubin. "India, like all countries with their own space assets, is aware that ASAT is a double-edged sword and that if they embark on a program, they will legitimize the Chinese program and endanger their own national satellites."

As for Saraswat's statement - "India is putting together building blocks of technology that could be used to neutralize enemy satellites" - Rubin almost downplays it entirely.

"His is quite a tepid statement, I wouldn't make much of it," said Rubin.

On the other hand, Subrata Ghoshroy, research associate in the Working Group in the Science, Technology, and Global Security Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has met senior former India Space Research Organization (ISRO) officials who were eager to let it be known that India has the capacity to respond.

"There are growing ties between ISRO and the Indian Ministry of Defense and the two are beginning to feed off each other," said Ghoshroy.

What Saraswat did was, in effect, to inject a powerful destabilizing element into the South Asian strategic equation at a time when the US is determined to do everything in its power to bolster regional stability.

When US Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned his trip to India this week, the last thing Gates probably expected to contend with was the possibility that New Delhi might be accelerating its timetable for the development of an ASAT weapon. Writing in the Times of India in advance of his visit, Gates made no mention whatsoever of space, anti-missile activities or ASAT weapons in particular, although there are certainly space-related items on the agenda.

What Gates avoided entirely was any mention of the US acting as a solid partner and supporter of India's ASAT program. While that might well be the case, it could be argued that in the interest of regional stability, the US might at least be rethinking how it will proceed in these matters in light of mounting concerns over the situation in Pakistan where China obviously enjoys significant leverage.

China's decision this month to proceed with a well-publicized test of its midcourse missile interceptor technology - just a few days after Pradeep Kumar, India's Defense Secretary, departed from Beijing - certainly has sent a strong message, while doing the US a favor in terms of providing the US with a timely excuse for allowing India to go ahead with its plans.

However, the US cannot have it both ways in the end. Courting India as a favored client for major arms purchases one moment, and as a strategic hedge against China, and then trying to promote regional stability the next moment is not a very coherent way to make meaningful progress in South Asia. The dilemma for the US is considerable.

Saraswat was quite careful in his choice of words, and went out of his way this time to assure any interested parties, including Gates, that no actual ASAT tests were now planned by India.

Saraswat has good reason to be very careful about his choice of words. A day after the US Navy cruiser USS Lake Erie shot down an errant US spy satellite in February 2008, for example, former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam - one of the key players in India's nuclear and missile programs - told reporters at a DRDO-sponsored International Conference on Avionics Systems in Hyderabad that India has, "the ability to intercept and destroy any spatial object or debris in a radius of 200 kilometers. We will definitely do that if it endangers Indian territory".

Saraswat, on the other hand, was less specific at the time. And while seeming to agree with Kalam's statement, he did not do so with absolute certainty.

"It is just a matter of time before we could place the necessary wherewithal to meet such requirements," Saraswat said. "We can predict and can always tackle such challenges."

India's position at the time of the China's ASAT test in January 2007 is hard to ignore. Pranab Mukherjee, India's external affairs minister, appealed for a more reasoned and less destabilizing approach by all nations as their military activities in space intensified.

"The security and safety of assets in outer space is of crucial importance," said Mukherjee. "We call upon all states to redouble efforts to strengthen the international legal regime for peaceful uses of outer space. Recent developments show that we are treading a thin line between current defense-related uses of space and its actual weaponization."

The same theme surfaced in a speech last year about the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement given by Shyam Saran, special envoy to the prime minister on climate change, at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC last March, when Saran briefly mentioned ASAT weapons.

"India is one of a handful of countries with significant space capabilities. We have a large number of communications and resource survey satellites currently in orbit. Although this does not fall strictly within the nuclear domain, the need to ensure the peaceful uses of outer space, is important for nuclear stability and international security," said Saran.

"We welcome [US President Barack Obama's] intention to join multilateral efforts to prevent military conflict in space and to negotiate an agreement to prohibit the testing of anti-satellite weapons. This is an area of convergence on which we would be happy to work together with the US and contribute to a multilateral agreement."

In early 2010, India's objectives are very clear.

"From a political/diplomatic angle, the guiding principle of India's missile defense/ASAT policy is not much different from China's - ie, maintain a basic political commitment to the non-weaponization of space, or, at minimum, the non-deployment of space-based offensive capabilities in global disarmament talks while assiduously cultivating the domestic technical capability to use space-based resources for strategic missile defense purposes," said Gupta.

At this point, nobody believes that some sort of magic firewall separates ongoing work on ABM and ASAT systems in a growing number of countries around the world.

"As for the linkage between BMD and ASAT, the linkage is very obvious - many Low Earth Orbit satellites orbit no higher than the ceiling of large BMD interceptors (like the US-built SM3, which was used by the US to shoot down a satellite in February, 2008) which are designed to take out very fast targets with km/sec closing speeds. Some modifications are necessary of course to take into account the greater closing speeds, but nothing drastic," said Rubin.

Saraswat knew this all too well back in 2008 when he admitted that India's efforts to deploy a missile defense system had been given a substantial boost by radar technology for tracking and fire control which the DRDO developed jointly with Israel and France. (See China can't stop India's missile system, Asia Times Online, Jan 16, 2009.)

Read rest of article in link below .

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LA22Df01.html

 

[nitesh]

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14824887&PageNum=0

MOSCOW, February 15 (Itar-Tass) - At the DefExpo India 2010 international exhibition of armaments for ground forces opening in the Indian capital on Monday Russia for the first time is to present information about the Buk-M2E and Tor-M2E air defence systems, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) said ahead of the exhibition.

The Buk missile system is a family of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union and Russian Federation and designed to engage cruise missiles, smart bombs, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Buk missile system is the successor to the NIIP/Vympel 2K12 Kub (NATO reporting name SA-6 “Gainful”). The first version of Buk adopted into service carried the GRAU designation 9K37 and was identified in the west with the NATO reporting name “Gadfly” as well as the US Department of Defence designation SA-11. Since its initial introduction into service the Buk missile system has been continually upgraded and refined with the latest incarnation carrying the designation 9K37M2 “Buk-M2.”

Buk-M2E is a multipurpose medium-range system for hitting any aerodynamic targets, including strategic and tactical aviation planes, fire support helicopters, tactical ballistic and antiradar missiles, aviation and cruise missiles at a range of 3 to 45 kilometres and at altitudes from 15 metres to 25 kilometres. It is also capable of firing on surface targets and ground-based radio-contrast targets.

The Tor missile system is an all-weather low to medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for engaging airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, precision guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic targets. Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K330, the system is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 “Gauntlet.” A navalized variant was developed under the name 3K95 “Kinzhal,” also known as the SA-N-9 “Gauntlet.” Tor was also the first air defence system in the world designed from the start to shoot down precision guided weapons like the AGM-86 ALCM.

The Buk-M2E and Tor-M2E air defence systems have already been displayed at several international exhibitions and have invariably enjoyed increased interest from potential buyers.

 

[nitesh]

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article124552.ece

In less than two weeks, India will test its Ballistic Missile Defence shield again, by launching an interceptor missile to kill an incoming “enemy” ballistic missile mid-flight.

This is the fourth time that the Defence Research and Development Organisation will be testing its interceptor missile.

While the incoming missile will lift off from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Orissa, the interceptor will blast off from the launch complex on the Wheeler Island, off Damra village, said V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister.

A variant of the Prithvi missile will mimic the enemy’s ballistic missile trajectory. An Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile will confront and kill it, in endo-atmosphere, at an altitude of less than 20 km. The launch window is between March 10 and 15. The Prithvi is a single stage, surface-to-surface missile that uses liquid fuel. The AAD is a single stage anti-ballistic missile that uses solid fuel. It is 7.5 metres long.

The DRDO scored three successes in a row when its interceptor missile tests conducted on November 27, 2006, December 6, 2007, and March 6, 2009, were on the target.

 

[lodaxstax]

Hii

Few questions on missile targeting ?

If knowledgeable members can shed light on

1. how is target assignment done ona BM? is thru feeding geographical coordinates or is there any other method?
2. are the coordinates frozen before or launch or they can be changed mid route?
3. is the guidance for a BM in terms of targetted location continuos?

What i had in mind was that if the target location is LOAL, means that the two way communication between the missile and control centre is open and thus vulnerable to do ched chad.

Current ABM shields rely on hitting the incoming missile with an interceptor which requires precision physics stretched to its limit. Can there be new gen ABM measures where in we do tinkering with communication of incoming missile and alter the coordinates to a different location?

Imagine a pakistani missile targetted at Delhi is tinkered mid way and coordinates changed to location in China and end up mushrooming a chipanda city? man i cant imagine the look on chinese when they find there very own M9s and M11s blowing their own cities.

Alternatively, if the missile is still being guided to the target thru satellite, can we do some ungli into the communication channel andmake it loose its course?

Apologies for letting my imagination run wild but the end result is too delicious.

 

[gb009]

Hii

Few questions on missile targeting ?

If knowledgeable members can shed light on

1. how is target assignment done ona BM? is thru feeding geographical coordinates or is there any other method?
2. are the coordinates frozen before or launch or they can be changed mid route?
3. is the guidance for a BM in terms of targetted location continuos?

What i had in mind was that if the target location is LOAL, means that the two way communication between the missile and control centre is open and thus vulnerable to do ched chad.

Current ABM shields rely on hitting the incoming missile with an interceptor which requires precision physics stretched to its limit. Can there be new gen ABM measures where in we do tinkering with communication of incoming missile and alter the coordinates to a different location?

Imagine a paki missile targetted at Delhi is tinkered mid way and coordinates changed to location in China and end up mushrooming a chipanda city? man i cant imagine the look on chinkis when they find there very own M9s and M11s blowing their own cities.

Alternatively, if the missile is still being guided to the target thru satellite, can we do some ungli into the communication channel andmake it loose its course?

Apologies for letting my imagination run wild but the end result is too delicious.

AFAIK ballistic missiles are guided only during their boost phase, which is a small part of the entire flight distance. For rest of the duration its basically like a stone. But modern BMs do have maneuverable reentry vehicles, but I think their guidance is internal though I am not sure.

 

[Singh]

Hii

Few questions on missile targeting ?

If knowledgeable members can shed light on

1. how is target assignment done ona BM? is thru feeding geographical coordinates or is there any other method?
2. are the coordinates frozen before or launch or they can be changed mid route?
3. is the guidance for a BM in terms of targetted location continuos?

1. Laws of Ballistics.
2. Frozen before
3. Nope. Refer to Laws of Ballistics

What i had in mind was that if the target location is LOAL, means that the two way communication between the missile and control centre is open and thus vulnerable to do ched chad.

Current ABM shields rely on hitting the incoming missile with an interceptor which requires precision physics stretched to its limit. Can there be new gen ABM measures where in we do tinkering with communication of incoming missile and alter the coordinates to a different location?

Imagine a paki missile targetted at Delhi is tinkered mid way and coordinates changed to location in China and end up mushrooming a chipanda city? man i cant imagine the look on chinkis when they find there very own M9s and M11s blowing their own cities.

Alternatively, if the missile is still being guided to the target thru satellite, can we do some ungli into the communication channel andmake it loose its course?

Apologies for letting my imagination run wild but the end result is too delicious.

1. Don't use slurs like P*k, Ch*nkii etc. They are frowned upon.
2. ABM rely upon laws of ballistics for targetting too. It would be impossible to intercept an object travelling at 10-20mach and changing its trajectory, altitude at the same time.

 

[plugwater]

India likely to testfire ADD missile on Sunday

With an eye to develop a full fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system,

India is likely to test-fire its indigenously designed and developed Advanced Air Defence missile from the Integrated Test Range off Orissa coast on Sunday.

The AAD missile is capable of destroying any hostile ballistic missile at low altitude situation, defence sources said today.

Range integration work at the ITR for the proposed trial is complete and the test is likely to be conducted tomorrow, they said.

The target missile, a modified indigenously built 'Prithvi' posing as an enemy missile, would first be lifted off from a mobile launcher from the ITR at Chandipur-on-sea and the interceptor AAD missile using a radio frequency seeker on-board would be blasted off from Wheeler Island about 70 km across the sea from Chandipur.

The missile would destroy the target in mid air over Bay of Bengal. The interception is to take place at low altitude, the sources added.

The seven-meter-long ADD interceptor is a single stage solid rocket-propelled guided missile, equipped with an inertial navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator totally under command by the data up linked from the sophisticated ground based radars to the interceptor, defence sources said.

The interceptor missile has its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and its own radars, they said.
Balasore district administration have made arrangements to temporarily evacuate about 600 families from five hamlets residing within 2 km radius of launch pad-3 of the ITR at Chandipur to nearby shelter camps as a security measure, official sources said.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/mar/13/india-likely-to-testfire-add-missile-on-sunday.htm

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.idsa.in/idsastrategiccomments/IndoUSMissileDefenceCooperation_AVKumar_300109

Indo-US Missile Defence Cooperation: Hype or Happening?

In early January 2009, the Financial Times reported “preliminary talks” between US and India on possible sale of systems for an Indian ballistic missile defence (BMD) shield. The daily quoted US embassy officials in New Delhi as saying that technical talks had taken place and that US defence officials had conducted computer simulations with Indian counterparts to demonstrate the capabilities of this technology. The Indian media, and some foreign ones, picked up the story and projected the report as an impending US-India deal on missile defence cooperation. That the report came amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan fuelled further speculation.

However, a closer look at the report indicates media hype rather than actual substance. As the FT report suggests, talks and technical-level interaction has been taking place between the Indian and US defence establishments for the past two years, and much earlier, to explore possibilities of cooperation in ballistic missile defence. Missile defence was one of the potential areas for strategic partnership identified in the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) in January 2004. Since then, concerned departments in the Pentagon and South Block have been discussing the means by which both countries can partner in this area. However, what puzzled BMD watchers was how such partnership would mould as US and India are placed at diametrically opposite ends of the BMD technological spectrum. The US is striving to develop advanced BMD technologies for mid-course and exo-atmospheric (outside the Earth’s atmosphere) interception with multiple kill-vehicle technologies including laser systems, while India is still struggling with rudimentary air defence technologies, notwithstanding the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans for an indigenous BMD system.

Though ‘cooperation’ remains the buzzword, it is unclear on whether this would amount to technology development or transfer, or off-the-shelf purchases of US systems by India. Soon after the FT report, a Pentagon spokesman denied any talks on sale of BMD systems. Rather, there are vague inferences on technical cooperation, which most in all likelihood could be centred on US ‘assistance’ to Indian BMD experimentations. A Pentagon statement clarifies that Indian scientists were invited to their test facilities – where a series of development tests are being undertaken by the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on systems like the Ground-Based Mid-Course Defence System (GBMDS) and the Airborne Laser (ABL), among others. How far would such interactions lead to a concrete ‘partnership’ is something which cannot be speculated at this point. There are many reasons for this ambivalence.

First, Indian BMD experimentations are progressing rapidly after the DRDO convinced the government on its ability to develop BMD technology, despite the jinxed state of many Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) ventures. The agency surprised many when it declared in late 2006 the development of a BMD capability through its Prithvi Air Defence Experiment (PADE). After all, achieving precision interception in a first attempt invites astonishment as even advanced countries like US and Russia have struggled on this technology for decades. The DRDO repeated the feat in December 2007 by declaring ‘successful’ tests of its (Prithvi Air Defence) PAD and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) systems. The PAD was touted as an exo-atmospheric system with 50km range (though an exo-atmospheric system should have the range of over 100 km) while the AAD was to be a lower-tier air defence system at 15-25 km range, which incidentally was also the capability aspired by the Akash. With a development and deployment target for middle of next decade, the DRDO is confident of an indigenous BMD shield, and could have convinced the government to reject plans for external acquisitions.

Second, as many media reports suggest, outright acquisitions from US comes with concomitant political sensitivities. China and Pakistan would be annoyed by the presence of US BMD systems in India, which would negate the deterrence capability of their nuclear arsenals, just like the GBMDS in Eastern Europe affecting Russia’s deterrence calculus. Being under pressure from the East European BMD and proliferation of US theatre defence systems in East Asia, China would make a hue and cry if India deploys US BMD systems as a shield against Chinese missiles, supposedly deployed in Tibet and other military regions. The FT report quoted an unnamed Pakistani official as saying that Pakistan “will have to take counter-measures to respond” to any agreement between the US and India on missile defence.

Though it is exactly these two catalysts that warrant an Indian BMD shield, it is unlikely that New Delhi would intimidate its adversaries by acquiring US BMD systems. However, Indian planners feel that these two nuclear neighbours would not be bewildered over an indigenous Indian system or acquisition of Russian systems like the S-300 or S-400. After all, China is known to be reverse-engineering Russian theatre systems like the S-75 and S-300 to develop its own air defence variants like the FT-2000 and the Hongqi. Despite its prowess in missile technologies, China’s capabilities on BMDs are underdeveloped. Though China watchers feel something dramatic is to come. One could anticipate China rattling the world with a major BMD demonstration, just as it did with the anti-satellite test.

Third, the scope for US partnership with India on BMD technology development is limited. Besides the DRDO’s zealousness for indigenisation, the US would be unwilling to share inputs on advanced baseline interception technologies on which the MDA is struggling to carve out a niche. It is often felt that the only technology US would be willing to share is the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC) system, which is an air defence system manned by the US Army. One should remember that the US had turned down Israel’s request to transfer the Arrow-II (a US-Israel joint venture) to India, despite it being an endo-atmospheric (range within Earth’s atmosphere) system, though it agreed to transfer the Greepine Radar. Considering that Washington developed cold feet on transferring even an advanced theatre defence system, it is difficult to envisage a US-India partnership on developing an Indian BMD system, which should naturally entail development of longer-range capabilities for boost or mid-course interception.

This being the milieu, it should be noted that even the US BMD programme is in crisis amidst budgetary constrains placed by the U.S. Congress and concerns that the Obama administration might terminate some existing projects. After more than a decade of development efforts, the MDA is still struggling to deploy its flagship project – the GBMDS. But for the limited deployment in Alaska, the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) and its support systems are still undergoing development tests, with that still elusive final ‘precision hit’. A similar fate hangs on projects like the ABL, which has to prove its worth in a crucial flight test later this year.

However, the MDA had its own morale-booster when the Aegis BMD (integrated on Aegis destroyers) shot down a dysfunctional satellite over Earth’s atmosphere in February 2008. Australia and Japan are acquiring the Aegis, which is currently the only operational mid-course/early ascent interception system. This implies that even India can aspire for this system if US-India BMD cooperation actually fructifies. However, the strategic relationship has not graduated to such levels of military partnering that would convince Washington to share its naval BMD mainstay with a country with whom relations are tumultuous.

Such scepticism, however, does not completely freeze the possibilities of cooperation in missile defence. A DRDO-MDA tie-up on knowledge sharing and capacity development is a possibility. The DRDO could benefit from the know-how on support infrastructure including surveillance, early warning and targeting systems, which are less controversial. After all, the PAD experiment was undertaken with formidable coverage from the Greenpine radar. Another system that could raise few tempers is the Theatre High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, which has higher endo-atmospheric coverage and is being deployed by the US Army as an augmentation to the Patriot. Assuming that New Delhi might have declined the Patriot system in place of its request for Arrow-II, it could convince Washington to transfer the THAAD, which is capable of tackling threats from short-range Chinese missiles in Tibet and Pakistani IRBMs.

However, with little information on the confabulations between the two countries on BMD cooperation, such speculation would only satiate beat reporters. Nonetheless, Washington could use this opportunity to signal out to Moscow with which Pentagon interlocutors are having a tough time convincing Russia on the merits of an East European BMD system. For that matter, Washington is also aware of the fact that Moscow had offered BMD partnership to New Delhi well before Indo-US ties blossomed.

 

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India likely to test-fire AAD missile tomorrow
Balasore: With an eye to develop a full fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system, India is likely to test-fire its indigenously designed and developed Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off Orissa coast tomorrow.

The AAD missile is capable of destroying any hostile ballistic missile at low altitude situation, defence sources said today.

Range integration work at the ITR for the proposed trial is complete and the test is likely to be conducted tomorrow, they said.

The target missile, a modified indigenously built 'Prithvi' posing as an enemy missile, would first be lifted off from a mobile launcher from the ITR at Chandipur-on-sea and the interceptor AAD missile using a radio frequency seeker on-board would be blasted off from Wheeler Island about 70 km across the sea from Chandipur.

The missile would destroy the target in mid air over Bay of Bengal. The interception is to take place at low altitude, the sources added. .

The seven-meter-long ADD interceptor is a single stage solid rocket-propelled guided missile, equipped with an inertial navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator totally under command by the data up linked from the sophisticated ground based radars to the interceptor, defence sources said.

The interceptor missile has its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and its own radars, they said.

Balasore district administration have made arrangements to temporarily evacuate about 600 families from five hamlets residing within 2 km radius of launch pad-3 of the ITR at Chandipur to nearby shelter camps as a security measure, official sources said.

PTI

http://news.in.msn.com/internalsecurity/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3702508