The secret 'K' missile family
November 20, 2010
In a dramatic breakthrough in its nuclear offensive capability, India has successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with an eventual range of 3,500 km. Tested secretly off Visakhapatnam in January this year, the 10-m long and 1.3-m wide missile emerged from a pontoon submerged 50 m underwater and breached the surface. Painted black and white so that it can be distinguished in water, it has passed a critical parameter.
Named after India's missile man, former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the nuclear-tipped K-4 is quite significant in a batch of new-generation counter-strike strategic missiles. The top secret indigenous "K" missiles are faster, lighter and stealthier. They also make India only the sixth country to develop undersea strategic missiles.
A second firing, to be conducted off Visakhapatnam within two months, will revalidate a critical parameter-the ability of a 20-tonne projectile to withstand 50 kg of water pressure and eject from a submerged launcher before engaging its rocket booster. What makes an SLBM relevant in the Indian context is that it is part of the third leg of the nuclear deterrent (air and ground-launched weapons being the other two) and the ideal invulnerable second strike weapon stated in the nuclear doctrine. Defence officials say a long range SLBM like the K-4 will enable an Indian nuclear submarine lurking in the Bay of Bengal to target China and Pakistan simultaneously. Launched last year, India's first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine Arihant has been designed to carry four K-4s or 12 of the 750-km range K-15s.
DRDO officials say that the K-4 will be ready for induction before the end of the decade. This is because most technologies, including the sophisticated guidance packages, were already perfected while developing the shorter range K-15 SLBM. Defence officials, however, are cautious because despite a history of missile expertise, Russia has witnessed multiple failures of its new Bulava SLBM. In the works is an as yet unnamed longer-legged variant of the K-4 with a 5,000-km range. The 12-m long missile is meant to arm future nuclear submarines.
But while the DRDO parades its Agni and Prithvi missiles on Republic Day, it will not even acknowledge the existence of any of these "black projects� that have been cloaked under the Advanced Technology Vessel Project (ATV) that builds the Arihant class of nuclear submarines.
The K-series missile programme formally began in 2004 as the PJ-08 as a tribute to its mentor, the then DRDO chief Kalam. The solid-fuelled missile had a modest 150-km range and was meant to arm the three nuclear submarines being built under a classified navy-DRDO project. Over the years, the missile steadily grew to achieve its desired 750-km range with its eighth and final test in November 2008. DRDO officials say all tests have been successful and concede they benefitted enormously from the learning process of Agni missiles. The project also developed critical technologies like ring laser gyros and guidance systems.
The hybrid K-15 combines aspects of both cruise and ballistic missiles, which use multiple-stage rockets to exit the atmosphere and re-enter in a parabolic trajectory. Launched underwater, the K-15 surges to the surface and kickstarts a first-stage air-booster which takes it to 7 km. A second stage booster takes it to a height of 40 km. Ejecting the first stage, the slender 10-m-long missile flips over and flies at seven times the speed of sound like a cruise missile. It has fins enabling it to be steered to within 20 m of its target, nearly 750 km away. The flat trajectory, where it flies parallel to the earth for most of its flight time, hypersonic speed and small cross-section mean the missile cannot be spotted until it is virtually upon the target. It engages in a series of terminal manoeuvres designed to defeat enemy missile defences. "This is the world's best weapon in this class," says a senior DRDO scientist.
Yet for long, the project was like the Harry Potter villain Voldemort; it simply could not be named. The programme hid under a series of obscure numeric project names. From PJ-08, it became Sagarika (oceanic), and then K-15, again for Kalam. Since last year, it has been called B-05 after the initials of an ATV project director. "Each time the press and public got wind of the programme, we simply changed numbers allowing the government to plausibly lie that it did not exist," says a DRDO official.
Serial production of the B-05 started last year with an unspecified number of missiles being delivered to the Ministry of Defence. The only irony is that technical glitches have delayed the commissioning of its intended platform, the Arihant, by two years. Launched last year, the submarine will be inducted only by 2013.
SLBMs, by definition, are more compact and advanced than their land-based counterparts. The Agni-III is 17 m long and has a range of 3,500 km. The K-4 has an identical range but is only 10 m long and boasts of superior solid-fuel rockets. Hence, two years back, the DRDO unveiled the Shourya, the land-variant of the B-05. The test met its performance parameters and impressed visiting army officials but there has been no word on a likely induction date. Officials say a turf war is the likely reason. The K-missiles are indigenously developed by a programme staffed by AT scientists but report to the ATV chief and the National Security Adviser. The Agni and Prithvi missiles are wholly DRDO-developed and are handled by the DRDO chief.
"The K series of missiles seem to have done better than the Agni programme and this may be the way to go forward," says Rear Admiral Raja Menon (Retd). Enthused by the programme's success, the ATV project submitted a detailed report to then NSA M.K. Narayanan four years ago. The classified report prepared by former navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash remains the only comprehensive internal assessment of India's strategic missile programme. It listed all the flaws in the strategic missiles in service-the Prithvi's liquid fuel and serious doubts over the Agni's accuracy.
The most important glitch: the bulky Agni could not be compacted for carriage on the Arihant class. It meant India would have to support multiple missile production lines. The report recommended the standardisation of India's nuclear missile delivery on the K series of "universal" land and sea-based missiles-the K-15 to substitute all the Prithvis, the K-4 and its successors to replace the Agnis. The report has been buried and the matter seemingly settled in favour of the DRDO when this year, the government greenlighted development of the 5,000-km range Agni-V.
The Prithvi, however, is living on borrowed time. Armed forces officials concede that the Indian version of the Scud is bulky, short-legged and may have outlived its utility. Inducted in 2004, the missile is liquid-fuelled, has a maximum range of only 350 km and is accompanied by a procession of multiple support vehicles, including missile propellant refuelling trucks. The Shourya has only a launcher and a command vehicle. "A moving Prithvi convoy can be easily spotted by satellite. It is simply the worst strategic missile to ever have been inducted and its short range means it is tremendously destabilising," says one official. In sharp contrast, the Shourya is solid fuelled. Its "wooden round" means the missile can be stored for up to 10 years and fired with little preparation. The Shourya has a range twice of that of the 350-km range Prithvi-III.
Present DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat, who incidentally developed the Prithvi missile, rubbishes such suggestions, saying that the Shourya is a futuristic missile, but it is too early to write off the proven Prithvi. "The process from validation to induction of a strategic system is almost as long as the development cycle," says former DRDO chief M. Natarajan. "It is important that we have a proven missile for over a decade before we gradually start replacing older stocks," he adds.
The "K" programme meanwhile continues to steam ahead from its headquarters in the drdl campus on the outskirts of Hyderabad, jokingly referred to as Missile-abad. In May this year, national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon inaugurated a limited series production facility to assemble the K-4 and K-15. On the drawing board is an air-launched stand-off strategic missile designed to be carried by a Su-30MKI. Newer options for the strategic arsenal.