Indian Missile News And Discussion

[Arun_S]

I knew of this some time ago. and have scans of the magazine pages but found a reference on the web so just linking them for you.



Article has some very useful insights as well some disinformation.



Overall a very good article.



Some observations:



1. K4 tested last January from submerged puntoon at 50 meter depth. I am lead to believe it was tested with BGRV. (that to me the big news and real good achievement)



2. K4 dia is reported to be 1.3 m, 10 m tall, and 20,000 Kg mass. We will know the real diameter when any further information re-confirms it. Teh 20 tonne mass is very unlikely with 1.3 m dia and 10 m total length.



He himself later compares K4, 20 tonne & 10 m length with 3,500 Km range compared to Agni-II with 17, tall and 2 m diameter. Unni should have by now known that Agni-III range is far in excess of 3,500 km touted for the 48 tonne missile.



A smaller K4 missiles range improvement is however very possible due to its BGRV that flies a non-ballistic, non parabolic trajectory.



3. If 1.3 m dia is in deed true then it pedigree of the Agni-IIAT that Ms Thomas is now heading. The 1.3 m dia is a bummer because the very fact that Arihant carries upto 12 Sagarika of certain diameter, it is clear the pressure tube is 2 to 2.2 m dia. It is terribly mismatched design choice to use a 1.3 dia A4 into an optimized nuclear sub.



4. The 10 m length of K4 is OTOH a good news, because that tells me that my Agni-II SL predictions are close to reality.



5. The A5 range of 3,500 km variant of A4 for larger sub will be 12 tall. That really is good news indicating the size of next variant of Arihant.



6. The air launched 2 tonne strategic missile with 200 km range and hypersonic speed will be an interesting spin-off of the BGRV that goes into K4.





7. With new RLG based INS, accuracy is a non-issue for all new Indian strategic missiles including Agni series.