Harop, CBU-105: India's reply to terror squads

[LCA Tejas]

Hmmm isnt it a pilot less "target" aircraft??

Yes, so my only question is why cant we Use it as a UCAV

 

[Dark Angel]

India is buying 510 CBU-105 sensor fuzed weapons. Average cost is $735,000 each (including spares, maintenance gear, some training equipment and technical support.) First used during the 2003 Iraq war, the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon is a cluster type bomb that releases computer controlled and radar equipped submunitions that hunt for tanks below and destroy them. Little robots, in effect. The CBU-105 can be used to attack formations of tanks, giving most of the submunitions an opportunity to destroy a vehicle.


CBU-105 is a half ton, GPS guided bomb carrying ten submunitions. Each of which uses a parachute to slowly descend. The submunition radar seeks out armored vehicles. If it spots one, the guidance system maneuvers the submunition towards the vehicle and fires a shaped charge that generates a self-forging warhead that is basically a bolt of molten metal travelling at high speed. This penetrates the thinner top armor of the vehicle and messes up the insides (this is similar to the Iranian shaped charge IEDs being used in Iraq). If the submunition radar does not spot (via it internal computer and library of vehicle types) a tank or other armored vehicle, it attacks any vehicle within a hundred meters or so, and attacks it. If there are no vehicles, the submunition detonates on the ground so that it does not lay around the battlefield causing a hazard.

 

[Relucent]

OMG i just found out a predator costs 4.5 mil and Harop 10!
This thing is very costly.I guess that is the reason why only 10 have been ordered.They are gonna be used in extreemely despirate situations only.

 

[Aryaputra]

This thing is very costly.I guess that is the reason why only 10 have been ordered.They are gonna be used in extreemely despirate situations only.

5 are enough for wasting in wargame-exercises to save Indian pride in world community. The rest will be locked down and keys will remain in Washington.

 

[Dark Angel]

Simply amazing stuff this thing is deadly

 

[Justin Joseph]

I think majority of those opposing sophisticated Harop like cutting edge weapon does not know about it and its uses.


Also, why avoid cluster bomb in the news, its a lethal weapon.

General characteristics

* Weight: 927 pounds (420 kg)
* Name: CBU-97 Sensor Fused Weapon (SFW)
* Length: 92 inches (234 cm)
* Diameter: 15.6 inches (40 cm)
* Dispenser: SW-65 tactical dispenser
* Bomblets: 10 × BLU-108/B
* Warhead: Armour Piercing
* Unit Cost: $360,000 - baseline

 

[Justin Joseph]

5 are enough for wasting in wargame-exercises to save Indian pride in world community. The rest will be locked down and keys will remain in Washington.

sir,

you are a fresh member try to learn first.

they are much needed and govt. is not moving for kickbacks that Antony does not believe in moving from his chair but our forces want them.

And u should believe Indian Forces and take them as expert.

Also, if we buy something we got ideas and know how which will come in handy at the time of R&D for indigenous development.

thanks

 

[Aryaputra]

Yes, so my only question is why cant we Use it as a UCAV

Because some intelligent people said in 1967 - "Why we need to invest in home-grown fighter-aircraft(LCA,MCA) programme? We can import faster from Russia. Lets close HAL's wasteful aircraft R&D division which is demanding funds for new CFD division which I think is useless." And, so they did.

The rest is history.

Same intelligent people say today - "why waste funds on modifying Lakshya and newer sensors which are costly, when we can import faster from Israel?"

And, the story continues.

 

[Relucent]

Lakshya cannot be simply modified into a "harop".Its got a range of 150 km.Which is limited by both fuel load and control range(atlest i think so).And then comes the electro-optical sensors.Then there is the sofware part and chips.These techs are verry complex.It can be said that Lakshya is simply not made to be a "ucav".I am pretty shure our scientists are working on a UCAV, till that time we will have to do with foregin ones.
We are buying only 10.Therefore no big deal abt blocking indigenous development.

Arya putra why are u so pessimistic???.Dude its not like our country is gettin doomed or somthing.Dont get emotional.

 

[Aryaputra]

Arya putra why are u so pessimistic???.Dude its not like our country is gettin doomed or somthing.Dont get emotional.

Don't worry dude, we won't be using these toys on terror camps in reality. Only on public simulators in Delhi Fair shows.

Don't be emotional. We can handle more 26/11(unless it hits one of us peace-lovers). Terrorists are poor,jobless people, you know. Heck, watching SRK movies is better than those boring 26/11 victims bullshit on TV. All is well, man.

Sarcasm apart, this "chalta hai" attitude is what holds India back down from its potential and Pak's supporters knows & uses this effectively.

World knows India lack guts to act on terrorists just 30 miles away from its border.

My point is still same, importing weapons are of no use(other than republic parade) if Indians don't learn to use them first.

 

[deckingraj]

Because some intelligent people said in 1967 - "Why we need to invest in home-grown fighter-aircraft(LCA,MCA) programme? We can import faster from Russia. Lets close HAL's wasteful aircraft R&D division which is demanding funds for new CFD division which I think is useless." And, so they did.

The rest is history.

Same intelligent people say today - "why waste funds on modifying Lakshya and newer sensors which are costly, when we can import faster from Israel?"

And, the story continues.

I see you have a point...But let me ask you some important questions....

a) Look at the history of DRDO projects and the kind of delays that were/are plagued with....Now not for a second i am doubting the capabilities of DRDO, In fact i am a big fan of it(Produced some awesome weapons)..However can you or I ignore the delays???

b) What should an army do when there are delays??? Shall it keep on waiting or shall it go to foreign market to fulfill its needs???

c) What you said happen in 1967 might be true...Just consider does it make sense for Pakistan to invest in R&D(which will take a lot of time and money to fructify) or shall it buy state of art weapons to counter Indian advancements(which as per them would be the need of the hour)??? Now replace India with China and Pakistan with India you will see a similar argument...Having said it we are slowly but surely moving towards being indegenous

d) Do you remember our pathetic loss in 1962 agasint China?? Had we invested in R&D thereafter vs buying state of art weapons from USSR we would have faced the same story in 1965...Don't you think so???

e) Having said that i guess all the members and any one who has some iota os sense would choose indegenous projects over foreign one's...However we also know that we have to catch up with pace of China and such state of art weapons are need of the hour...So if DRDO cannot provide it right now let's buy it out...

f) Last but not the least there have not been such a big push by GOI for indegenous projects since independence...Order of just 10 such toys kind of speak a lot...don't they??? So just wait and watch....

 

[jha]

a good news indeed but we have to do our own R&D too...

 

[Justin Joseph]

a good news indeed but we have to do our own R&D too...

Buying 10 UCAV will not stop our R & D but their handling and operation etc. will give us idea to improve our R & D.

I wish we have purchased more.

As we have not buoyed them in 100s only 10 in numbers.

 

[jha]

10 is enough to monitor every detail about them...

who knows we might be going china way in this...

 

[Aryaputra]

I see you have a point...But let me ask you some important questions....

ok, I will answer one by one in short.

a) Look at the history of DRDO projects and the kind of delays that were/are plagued with....Now not for a second i am doubting the capabilities of DRDO, In fact i am a big fan of it(Produced some awesome weapons)..However can you or I ignore the delays???

Short answer is "corruption" & "chalta hai" attitude in MoD babus.

Long answer goes like this. -

Delays are due to bureaucratic culture. ISRO is also run by Government. why it doesn't fail or have massive delays? Answer is, the difference between DRDO and ISRO's hierarcy. ISRO is under PM Office, it doesn't have to wait years for every small sanction on project matters or day to day issues. But in DRDO's case, it is under MoD(a ministry with 100 fools who think they understand science better than junior scientists in DRDO).

Thats one reason why DRDO walks like a thirsty dog.

The day Complete Autonomy is given to DRDO management(which has most scientists) as compared to MoD babus(arrogant fools) who control DRDO, you will see DRDO completing projects faster and even better than imports.

b) What should an army do when there are delays??? Shall it keep on waiting or shall it go to foreign market to fulfill its needs???

I have answered "delay" part of your question. Now I will focus on where Army fits into this "delay" problem.

First thing is, home-grown R&D is must. You can't substitute it with imports. Yes, you should import if home projects are taking time. Every country does that. But things are different in India's case. Like, those countries never divert funds to imports from home-projects. India does.

The first is okay, but the second is a scam. And, Armed forces are also partly responsible for that because they were the ones who supported stopping funding of HAL's Aircraft research division in 1967. Because, these Armed forces said - "Russians are good. We don't need waste funds on domestic projects. Close it."

They lacked the vision. They realized the mistake in 1987 and asked HAL to restart work on Indian Fighter programme.

What HAL had left after 20 years to start with? ZILCH. They had no base, because most of aviation scientists left the job in 1967 and migrated to USA.

Now these same morons in IAF,MoD blame DRDO, HAL for old-technology and delays.

There is one more reason why Indian Armed forces are known as "killers of DRDO" -

They refuse to work closely with DRDO on floor, which is standard practice in developed countries. US Armed force has done more work with Lockheed martin than what IAF ever did with HAL other than blaming them in public, like kids. That shows communication gap between IAF and developers.

Today, the basic issues are still same. The fact is that, MoD and IAF are filled with short-sighted people who think they are "experts" but lack genuine temperament to understand how "innovation" processes work.

Thankfully, US Airforce is not dumb like Indian forces, who start blaming scientists on delays but rather they take steps to work closer with them to solve and rectify issues.

By the way, every imported Russian weapon system paid babus in MoD. So, no wonder LCA is lagging so much.

Compare what LCA got in total funding till today(3 Billion dollars) over 20 years and how much India paid to Russia in 20 years. You will get the mystery behind failure of DRDO.