Missile Man pierces army apathy

EnlightenedMonk

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Missile Man pierces army apathy

India can stake claim to be among the first in the world to be ready with a supersonic land-attack cruise missile because of the tenacity of an unheralded Missile Man whose pet project was almost written off for aiming too high.

Sivathanu Pillai, a technocrat whose bald pate is not covered by berets, whose chest is bereft of medals and shoulders of epaulettes, dared the Indian Army by claiming he would arm its artillery divisions with a missile the world had not seen.



The army is led by an artillery officer, General Deepak Kapoor, who wanted to see this wonder weapon himself.

So he led a team to the Pokharan desert range on January 20. The general witnessed the dismal failure of the BrahMos Mark II personally.

Yet, in the space of just over two months, Pillai produced a missile — a supersonic cruise missile for the army — through three rapid-fire tests that left the generals gasping for its uniqueness, for its speed and for Pillai’s sheer grit.

Pillai has made the BrahMos Land Attack Cruise Missile Mark II real despite opposition from the Indian Army that kept upping its demands and reducing the size of the targets in the tests.



The first target was the size of a factory, the second, also a factory the size of a large building and the third, a small building in a simulated urban cluster. The missile was tasked to hit the factory in the first two tests. In the third test, it was to discriminate, select and choose its target before destroying it.

Pillai’s BrahMos missed the first. The mission was aborted after the missile went off-target mid-course despite a successful launch on January 20 when the army chief was witness.

After the second test, on March 4, seen by deputy army chief Lt Gen M.S. Dadwal, Pillai said it was a success but the army said it was “evaluating and analysing” the results even three days after the test.

“The missile was in the target area all right,” Gen Kapoor said of the test. “But there has been one failure (on January 20) so we need confirmation and there are some technical issues.”

Then on March 29 — just last week — Pillai requested the army to send a team to witness another test. The director general of military operations, Lt Gen A.S. Sekhon, led a team.

This time, the army put up just a sheet as a target with reflectors on two sides to deflect the missile from its trajectory.

Pillai’s BrahMos hit bull’s eye. Without waiting for official word from the army this time, Pillai went public, proclaiming its success.

“In 15 minutes flat,” he put it simply in his chamber inside the headquarters of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in an interview to The Telegraph, “your enemy country can be destroyed and you do not even have to go nuclear.”

Pillai is the chief executive officer and the head of the Indo-Russian BrahMos, an acronym from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. He is also the chief controller for armaments, land and naval systems in the DRDO.

“In the Iraq war, the US launched 1,000 Tomahawks in half a day,” he recalled. “You have to think on that scale. And the BrahMos is supersonic. It cannot be intercepted. Even we cannot do anything to it, once we launch it. Fire and forget. You think of the missile in hundreds, thousands, like you think of many, many arrows being fired from a quiver,” he said.

Two other known supersonic land-attack cruise missiles under development are the Fasthawk, made by Boeing in the US, and the French ANS. China also has a supersonic missile programme.

The BrahMos is ready.

Then why did the Indian Army open itself to suggestions that it was not keen on the project? Clear-cut answers won’t be available to such questions. But the army has been seeing demonstrations of missiles by Raytheon Corporation. A section of the army’s artillery officers has been impressed by it.

A piece of history that DRDO’s scientists are familiar with was in danger of being repeated: was another indigenous, rather, a semi-indigenous military programme going to be sacrificed in the interest of imports? And to the benefit of middlemen who would earn fat commissions? All in the name of national security? And national interest?

But this week — soon after Pillai’s third test — the vice-chief of army staff, Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj, announced at a seminar: “The BrahMos Mark II is ready for induction. The missile’s accuracy, lethality and range have made it a deadly combination.”

The army is now ready to raise two regiments of the BrahMos Mark II.
 

Auberon

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Yet another highly biased article, all hail the mighty DRDO ^:)^

Link?
 

sayareakd

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I think that Foreign weapons maker are just offering high pay back that is why these things are happning with our domestic product.

Arjun cannot give a single paisa to any one but T90S can deliver in Ruble or in Vokta
same is true of other foreign mall.
 

Auberon

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I think that Foreign weapons maker are just offering high pay back that is why these things are happning with our domestic product.

Arjun cannot give a single paisa to any one but T90S can deliver in Ruble or in Vokta
same is true of other foreign mall.
Just out of curiousity, what is your "thinking" based on and what are "these things" happening to our domestic products?
 

Auberon

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Bet a Rupee article is either by DNA's "highly places unnamed sources" or DRDO ball-licker Sujan Dutta.
 

Auberon

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Yup, Sujan Dutta it is, everyones entitled to their fanboyish delusions.
 

threadbrowser

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hahaha good call Auberon.

Let them repeat the same thing with multiple targets and missiles and on a regular basis and we will see.
 

Auberon

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hahaha good call Auberon.

Let them repeat the same thing with multiple targets and missiles and on a regular basis and we will see.
I am sure it ll be a success, but seriously, Army evaluates the missiles' performance in the initial failed test and Telegraph reports Army is smug and not unhappy with the failure, Army says "The BrahMos Mark II is ready for induction. The missile’s accuracy, lethality and range have made it a deadly combination" after the successful test and suddenly its the missile man who has "dared the Indian Army and pierced their apathy apart", darn, gimme a break!

The level of journalistic maturity in India is generally quite low, specially when related to Defence related news, but Sujan Dutta takes it down to a whole new level showing not only spineless absence of integrity but also sheer lack of common sense , his articles reek of cheap attention gaining tricks by appealing to public sentiment about how Our Superior Domestic Products (naturally) are being sacrificed for the age old vices of corruption and beaurocratic apathy, and when he fails miserably in doing so, he tries to paint it as a victory of DRDO against overwhelming odds of officers impressed by Raytheon, middlemen making money etc. Opportunistic journalism at its best.
 

kautilya

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Yes. First test fails. Army doesn't like it.

Second test passes but army reserves judgement and holds for higher success rate.

Third passes and army moves to induct.

How biased of the army. The army should have inducted immediately after the first test! Failure or not, it's Indian. It took two successful tests to induct, no doubt the Indian army is bought and paid for by foreigners.

And then there are other idiots(not here but generally) suggesting the Indian army induct the thousands the good scientist wants instead of a measley two regiments. Where is the money to come from?

Between the media and fanboys we have a helluva combination.

P.s. Hey Auberon, did you get the dancing girls and the suitcases allright? :113:
 

Auberon

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Yes. First test fails. Army doesn't like it.

Second test passes but army reserves judgement and holds for higher success rate.

Third passes and army moves to induct.
But but but, the army opposed it by upping the test requirements, from a factory to a small building in a simulated urban cluster , what prejudice !

How biased of the army. The army should have inducted immediately after the first test! Failure or not, it's Indian. It took two successful tests to induct, no doubt the Indian army is bought and paid for by foreigners.
Read the statements by the Army -

Gen Kapoor -“The missile was in the target area all right, But there has been one failure (on January 20) so we need confirmation and there are some technical issues.”

Lt Gen M.S. Dadwal - We are evaluating and analysing the results.

Such criticism, such apathy, how will an organisation like DRDO ever be able to succeed in view of such difficulties?

Contrast this with the highly responsible statement of DRDO apparently issued to Telegraph that, "the army (oh man, I love this line) was smug and frankly, not unhappy with the failure."

And 3 whole days to analyse, when the good Mr. Pillai had procaimed the test a success.

And then there are other idiots(not here but generally) suggesting the Indian army induct the thousands the good scientist wants instead of a measley two regiments. Where is the money to come from?
See you obviously don't understand the potential of this sytem. The money will be abundant, since all other military expenditure will become redundant. Everything will be replaced by Brahmos.Mr. Pillai, the eminent scientist, a technocrat whose bald pate is not covered by berets, whose chest is bereft of medals and shoulders of epaulettes, has himself stated in the article that the enemy nation will be destroyed in 15 minutes flat, unlike those unrealistic little officers who waste their lives in doctrinal and tactical analysis, when all they need to do is launch thousands of Brahmos, don't even need to go nuclear.


P.s. Hey Auberon, did you get the dancing girls and the suitcases allright? :113:

What are you talking about, its only the unscruplous Army Officers who get such things, all in the name of national interest and national security.
 

Auberon

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What a self contradictory artcle, first its claimed
After the second test, on March 4, seen by deputy army chief Lt Gen M.S. Dadwal, Pillai said it was a success but the army said it was “evaluating and analysing” the results even three days after the test.
Later on it claims
Without waiting for official word from the army this time, Pillai went public, proclaiming its success
, no shite, as if he waited the first time around, claiming it a success based on God-Knows-What while the army was still analysing the results.

But then again, all doubt is cleared further on -
Then why did the Indian Army open itself to suggestions that it was not keen on the project?
..dont know whether to laugh or cry at this :(
 

sayareakd

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it appears that some one in Defence ministry has pulled up Indian Army, after good spanking, Army, is speaking with their mind.
 

sayareakd

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it appears that some one in Defence ministry has pulled up Indian Army, after good spanking, Army, is speaking with their mind.
It is bit harsh but this is what i thought after going throught the Arjun saga.

not to mention those defence delears and retire officers, who want to make quick buck at the expence of nation.
 

Auberon

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It is bit harsh but this is what i thought after going throught the Arjun saga.

not to mention those defence delears and retire officers, who want to make quick buck at the expence of nation.
Feel free to to offer your expert opinion and the basis of it on the Arjun saga also, as you've admirably done about the Brahmos.

Now now, why do I have a feeling that ..... never mind, go ahead :blum3:
 

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