Quote:2011-08-14 05:30:00





Pokhran: The Army today successfully conducted the user trial of BrahMos Block-III supersonic cruise missiles that has the ability to engage inaccessible targets inside hillocks.



The test was carried out at a firing range here around 1100 hours and met all the mission parameters, sources said.



The Block III version has the capability of scaling mountainous terrain and can take a steep dive to engage targets located inside hillocks which are otherwise inaccessible.



This was the 25th test of the cruise missile which has already been inducted in the Army and Navy.Army has plans to induct the missile for mountain warfare.



The missile has the capability to engage ground targets from a very low altitude with minimum radar signature and is considered best for surgical operations.



Considered one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world, BrahMos can gain a speed of Mach 2.8. It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise.



Jointly developed by India and Russia, BrahMos is a stealth supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.



The submarine and air launch version of the missile are under different stages of development and are scheduled for test-firing in next couple of years.



The fire-and-forget missiles are stored, transported and launched from special mobile launchers and can be launched in both vertical and horizontal modes.

Quote: Bhubaneswar: India today successfully test-fired its surface-to-surface ballistic missile 'Shourya' from a test range in Orissa, defence ministry sources said.



The 600-km-range supersonic missile was launched at 2.30 p.m. from a canister in a ground launch mode at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in the coastal district of Balasore, about 230 km from Bhubaneswar.



"The launch of the missile was perfect like in text book and followed the path exactly to the pre-defined target in the Bay of Bengal," S.P. Dash, director of the test range, told IANS.



"All the radar stations, telemetry stations and electro-optical stations all along the east coast have tracked and monitored all the mission parameters. Ships located near the target have also tracked and witnessed the final event. The missile has reached the target within few metres of accuracy," he added.



The missile, which is meant to give the Indian Army a credible second-strike capability, was first tested from the same defence base Nov 12, 2008.



The developmental flight trial of the missile system is a part of the ongoing technology development work undertaken by the country's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).



The missile has a unique feature of simplicity of operation and maintenance. It can be easily handled, transported and stored within the canister for longer shelf life.



The high maneuverability of the missile makes it less vulnerable to available anti-missile defence systems, sources said.



Read more at: [url="http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/india-test-fires-n-capable-shourya-missile-135993&cp"]http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/india-test-fires-n-capable-shourya-missile-135993&cp[/url]

Quote:September 24, 2011 16:36 IST | Updated: September 24, 2011 16:53 IST

• T.S. Subramanian

• Y. Mallikarjun

India’s hypersonic missile, Shourya, was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Orissa, on Saturday, in its final configuration. The missile flew at 7.5 Mach, that is, 7.5 times the speed of sound and covered its full range of 700 km in 500 seconds.



This was the third successful launch of Shourya, a surface-to-surface missile and it paves the way for its production and induction into the Navy. It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads. Shourya is the land-variant of the K-15 underwater missile that is being fitted into India’s nuclear-powered submarine, Arihant. So Shourya can be used by both the Navy and the Army. It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads.



The missile rose from a canister fixed on the ground “on the dot” at 2.30 p.m., climbed to an altitude of 40 km and traversed 700 km at 7.5 times the speed of sound.



It performed a terminable manoeuvre and closed in on the pre-designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal with a high degree of accuracy. The missile was designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).



Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, said “the flight went off absolutely perfectly” and it met all the mission objectives. The radars located at the ITR, Chandipur and at Damra, also in Orissa, electro-optical and telemetry systems and two ships located near the impact point tracked the missile’s entire flight. They reported on “the excellent performance” of the missile.



“It gave us full confidence for the production of this class of systems. The launch was to certify the production process and offer the missile for further production,” he said.



Asked what was the altitude at which Shourya flew, Mr. Chander said it “was an entirely atmospheric flight” at a height of 40 km.



V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Hyderabad, called it “a good flight” and he was confident that the production of Shourya would go on as per plan because the missile this time was picked up from the production lot. “We achieved the full range for the ground launch configuration,” he said.



The ASL had developed the rocket motors for the two-stage missile and built the canister from which it took off, Dr. Sekaran said. Both the stages use solid propellants. The missile is 10 metres long, 74 cm in diameter and weighs 6.2 tonnes.



It was ejected from the canister fixed on the ground, by means of a gas generator developed by the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune and the ASL, both DRDO laboratories.

[size="3"][quote name="The Hindu" date="September 30, 2011"]



[/size]

Quote:

• Y. Mallikarjun

• T.S. Subramanian

The successful launch of three missiles in the past one week confirmed India’s readiness for strategic defence and that the country’s missile development and production capability have reached a high maturity level, observed V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister.



Talking to The Hindu soon after the launch of the nuclear weapons-capable Agni-II on Friday, he said the hat-trick of successes has proved the country’s capability to develop and produce missiles of any range and the possession of technology to meet any threat profile.



He said that Agni-II Prime surface-to-surface missile would be launched in November and the first flight test of India’s longest range strategic system Agni-V (5,000 km range) would be conducted in December. Besides, an interceptor missile test would also be held as part of the plans to put in place Ballistic Missile Defence system.



Dr. Saraswat said Agni-II’s performance on Friday was outstanding and all the performance parameters were in copy-book manner, including the terminal event and detonation of the warhead. The Circular Error Probability (CEP) was within a few metres showing that the missile’s terminal accuracy was good. The propulsion rockets too performed as per the thrust profile.



During its flight, Agni-II reached an altitude of 220 km and re-entered the atmosphere as the re-entry vehicle withstood temperatures of more than 3,000 deg.C and the accuracy of thermal and aerodynamic loads was proved.

Quote:September 30, 2011 10:11 IST | Updated: September 30, 2011 23:23 IST

• T.S. Subramanian Y. Mallikarjun

The missile, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead, performed a manoeuvre as it plunged into the atmosphere amidst a searing temperature of 3,000 degrees' Celsius. The two-stages of the surface-to-surface missile worked with precision. . The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the armed forces, which handles nuclear-weapons delivery systems, conducted the launch. The missile weighs 17 tonnes and is 20 metres long



“It was a dream launch,” V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, told The Hindu from the Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast. “This kind of launch takes place only once in a while,” he said.



The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) designed and developed Agni-II. It calls the missile “the pride of India's strategic arsenal.”



This was the third successful missile launch in seven days for the DRDO. The Agni-II triumph caps the successful missions of Shourya and Prithvi-II from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Orissa, on September 24 and 26.



Friday's success has boosted the confidence of the DRDO missile technologists in the Agni system because two earlier flights of Agni-II and another of Agni-II Prime had failed. The failures were attributed to problems in the control system in the missiles' first stage.



All the milestones in the Agni-II mission such as the lift-off, the vehicle gaining velocity, the flight's terminal events, the trajectory profile and the detonation of the warhead [chemical explosives in this case] took place in a copybook fashion, said Dr. Saraswat, who himself is a missile technologist.



The missile's control systems, global positioning system and advanced navigation system,[size="3"][color="#000000"] guided by a novel scheme of earth command and control system[/color][/size], performed with precision, guiding the missile to the impact point in the sea. “Our ground systems, the rail-mobile launcher, the Launch Control Centre and the computerised control software worked beautifully,” the DRDO Director-General said.



In Dr. Saraswat's assessment, the three missile triumphs in seven days were “milestones” in the history of the DRDO's missile programme. They demonstrated its capability to develop missiles of various ranges and its possession of technology to meet any threat profile.



“These three outstanding successes” were a sign of India's maturity in missile technology. Prithvi-II had become “a workhorse”, with its being flight-tested about 70 times. Agni-II was also a robust missile, he added.



Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, said the control-related problem that led to the earlier failures were overcome by taking a number of steps focussing on quality. A specialist, dedicated agency went into quality at every stage.



“We took a number of steps to streamline the quality process and everything was checked,” he said. Agni-II's re-entry worked perfectly. Mr. Chander called it “a manoeuvring re-entry vehicle.”



V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) in Hyderabad, who described it as a text-book launch, appreciated the SFC launching the missile on its own. The ASL, a DRDO missile facility, developed Agni-II.



The users of Agni-II were happy that its control-related problem had been solved. It was a small problem. The users need not worry about its reliability and capability. “We always knew that Agni-II was a good missile,” Dr. Sekaran said.



D. Lakshminarayana, Agni-II Project Director, was in charge of the activities on the Wheeler Island, which led to the successful launch.



Those present during the launch included Air Marshal K.J. Mathews and S.P. Dash, ITR Director.

Quote:Avionics, Navigation and Control



The Agni family of missiles uses a strap-down INS system for flight control and navigation.



The Agni introduced a new concept by adopting MIL-STD-1553 databus for all on-board communication and control device interconnections (mainly INS system, Flight Control Computer, actuators and sensors).41 It is the standard that is adopted in new civilian and military aircraft (circuit routing and device mounting) and all the software in the Agni-II has been designed around this bus. DRDO sources claim that this reduces the number of connections and also making the missile more rugged. However, some missile analysts feel that a standard databus may not be the best path to follow. It is said that a customised databus is better because in a standard databus, one tends to use off-the-shelf electronic devices whose performance may not be optimal. However, most modern missiles are moving towards digital buses using commercial off-the-shelf technology, which enables affordable sub-system replacement or enhancement.



Accuracy



[color="#800080"]Agni-II navigation and aiming utilises an advanced ground based beacon system using TDOA (Time Delay Of Arrival) technique similar to GPS42 that constantly provides missile flight position and velocity update that has been proven in test flights.43 The TDOA system reportedly improved the accuracy by three times.44[/color]



India has demonstrated a measure of mastery in navigation sensors and flight control through its space programme. The placement accuracy in GTO (involving powered flight of 1,000 seconds, much of it in sub-G or gravity free environment) is a far more complicated and delicate matter45 than that of the sub-orbital trajectory of an IRBM. Thus the GSLV-D2 and GSLV-F01 GTO Apogee accuracy of 1965 PPM46,47 and 361 PPM48,49 respectively, compares with Agni-II’s 40 metres CEP at IRBM range with 13 PPM accuracy.

[size="3"]That one looks delicious.<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Will peruse it in full after this post.

As for Sanjay pulling that stunt, "tch...tch" is a microcosm of my feelings about such inclinations.[/size]

[size="3"]A newcomer to BRF then, I had come to know from a relative of mine who lurks that your critique of Pokhran II rubbed some BRFites the wrong way. (I am probably being a little too accommodating in the tail-end of that above statement, but do correct me if I am wrong). A very unfortunate state of affairs if it was so as I heard.



Arun ji, it will be nice if you do get the time to host 'em somewhere, in a blog perhaps, or maybe here in the member article section? That applies equally well to your other "musings" on things military/space-y which present a proper summarised analysis of official handouts and driblets.

May the force be with you.<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />[/size]