Indian Missile News And Discussion

[Arun_S]

[quote name='babbup' date='13 June 2010 - 03:21 AM' timestamp='1276378986' post='106868']

What I meant was that it is forcing Indian scientists to develop more accurate missiles than the rest of the world. So, it is good if seen from the perspective of missile development.

[/quote]



Indian policy of "Second strike" (I.e. no first strike) means its second strike is not counter force (against specific military targets) but counter-value (against the opposing state in general, including population centers).



So after the CEP improves from 20 km to 200 meter, there is no substitute to warhead yield. Additional improved accuracy is only useful for counter force attack (a.k.a), something that is against Indian policy as well beyond Indian capability in terms of number of warheads and military might (or depth). First Strike anyway make no sense for a country that is not capable of second strike; and for second strike one must be able to inflict huge damage against enemy population at large. That requires delivering warheads that can level certain number of square kilometers of enemy population centers, doing that via:

1. fewer numbers of high yield warheads delivered with accuracy of ~ 400 meter

OR

2. many times more lower yield warheads delivered with accuracy of ~ 200 meter (this is a very expensive economic proposition)



Making missiles super precise does not mitigate requirement of requiring many times more lower yield warheads.



With limited qty of lower yield warheads making missiles even more reliable (and ABM counter measure) becomes a prime necessity (again a high cost proposition). Now India is far for being a rich country and Indian defense force budget continues to be puny and constrained.