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Hits and Misses of DRDO IN 2014

PARIKRAMA

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Hits and Misses of DRDO IN 2014
Published December 24, 2014
SOURCE: IDRW NEWS NETWORK ( INN)


Down to last few days of this year, we are all set to say goodbyes to 2014 But for Countries Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) 2014 has seen ups and downs , idrw.org has put together 5 Key Hits and Misses of 2014 involving Some of the key DRDO Projects which had strategic implication to countries security preparedness .

While most of the Hits for DRDO has come from Missile front development for 2014 and Misses also have been on missile and Aeronautics Projects front which have missed their deadlines this year or have failed this year.


Hits

LR-SAM & MR-SAM: Indo-Israeli first joint venture LR-SAM & MR-SAM was finally successful test fired after 4 years of delays in the program. 70KM missile will be crucial in providing Aerial Protection against sea-skimming missiles or enemy aircrafts to India’s Naval warships. IAF’s will be using land based MR-SAM of the same missile which will be tested in 2016-17 period.

Nirbhay: After failure in last year maiden launch last year. India’s first long-range subsonic cruise missile, Nirbhay, was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, in Orissa, for a distance of about 1,000 km on 17/10/2014. Missile perfectly followed the path up to 15-way points and Development of new turbofan engine is progressing well. Nirbhay will play a crucial role in India’s Cold Start Doctrine and will be used by IAF, Indian Army and Indian Navy.

Astra BVRAAM: India’s first indigenous air-to-air missile ‘Astra’ was a test fired this year from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet. Project was first sanctioned in March 2004 at an initial cost of Rs 955 crore and repeated Static tests from ground launcher missile had many failure due to in-flight stability issues after years of delays and major design changes missile cleared first flight test . Missile will now have to undergo a battery of full-scale trials covering the entire flight envelope, especially against “actual manoeuvring targets” mimicking enemy aircraft, before it can arm IAF fighters like Sukhoi-30MKIs, MiG-29s and the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.

K-4 SLBM: India’s secretly test-fired its most potent submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) K-4 earlier this year. K-4 is a critical component of the missing third (or underwater) leg of India’s nuclear triad of weapons. K-4 which has ability to Hit targets over 3500 km will complement 750-km-range K-15 (also known as the B-05), India’s first undersea missile which will be armed on INS Arihant Nuclear Submarines and its sister class ships in next decade . DRDO till now has not released Picture or data about the missiles capability yet and still doesn’t comment on missile project.

Pinaka Mark-II Rocket: Advanced version of the indigenously developed Pinaka Mark-II rocket was test-fired earlier this year, but performance was below par as per DRDO but Rocket was again testfired again earlier this month and was declared successful . Mark-II version of Pinaka rockets has more than 60-km range that’s 25km more then Mark-I version which already has been inducted in Indian Army.

Misses

PDV interceptor: Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) is intended to replace the existing PAD in the PAD/AAD combination. missile was test fired earlier and declared successful but later it was reported that the missile failed to destroy the target missile as no interception could take place due to technical reasons.

Rustam-II UAV: High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) Rustam has been under development for some time and was also been carrying out slow taxi trials but DRDO’s labs have failed to carry out first test flight which was supposed to be carried out earlier this year . HALE UAV development has been going on snails space and major Sensor Payload and DRDO is yet to complete work on Automatic Takeoff and Landing (ATOL) system for UAV Program and it has been rumoured that first flight might take place without crucial payloads and ATOL system .

DRDO Abhyas: Abhyas UAV is a High Speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) developed for testing surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles failed in its maiden developmental test flight earlier this year. Abhay has been derived from the Lakshya by downsizing it and changes also have made to its wing position.

Canister Agni-V: DRDO’s plans to test Canister-Launch of Agni-V this year will take place next year according to latest media reports. Recently DRDO successfully carried out the final missile ejection test from a canister in simulated conditions. 50 tonnes Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Agni-V is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of about 1.5 tonnes up to a distance of more than 5,000 km and can target all of Asia and parts of Africa and Europe. (IDRW says misses even though other reports say its to be tested in Jan 2015)

Astra MK-2: Delays and false starts in Astra MK-1 Project allowed Astra MK-2 Project team to catch up with Astra MK-1 project team and also learn from the mistakes committed by earlier team on Astra , Mark-II version will be able to hit enemy aircraft over 100km away . DRDO which has successfully tested fired Astra MK-1 from Sukhoi-30 this year has promised first ground testing of Mark-II version by year end but till writing of this article DRDO has not carried out any tests from Ground-based launchers yet .


Hits and Misses of DRDO in 2014 | idrw.org
 
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PDV interceptor: Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) is intended to replace the existing PAD in the PAD/AAD combination. missile was test fired earlier and declared successful but later it was reported that the missile failed to destroy the target missile as no interception could take place due to technical reasons.

I doubt PDV's account...DRDO explicitly said that The mission’s main objective was to track the target missile. We wanted to see the performance of the IR seeker. The warhead in the interceptor missile was not meant to be exploded in this mission. Since we did not fire the warhead, the debris did not fall.

Interceptor spot on, though without blast: DRDO - The Hindu

they declared the test as success,and only New Indian Express hailed it as failed test(well,they hail pretty much every missile test as failed test).

couldn't find anything about DRDO Abhyas test...
 
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