Army warms up to Akash missile
India’s long-criticised Akash anti-aircraft missile is now blazing towards success. Its counterparts in the DRDO’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, the Prithvi and Agni ballistic missiles, were on target from the start; the anti-tank Nag missile will also enter service shortly; the Trishul short-range anti-aircraft missile was abandoned unceremoniously. Now, after years of rejection from the military, the Akash is being accepted as a world-class missile.
The IAF’s order last year for two Akash squadrons — dismissed by sceptics as a face-saving burial for the Akash programme — has just been doubled with a fresh IAF order for 16 more launchers that will be stationed in northeast India. And now, Business Standard has accessed even better news for the Akash programme: the Indian Army is considering ordering several Akash squadrons for its ground forces.
The DRDO’s Chief Controller for R&D, Prahlada, has confirmed that the army is displaying fresh interest in the Akash. Asked for details, Prahlada told Business Standard, “I cannot say whether the army is interested in the Akash for its strike corps, or for another role. In any case, the Akash is a mobile system that is suitable for various roles.”
But protecting fast-moving tank columns from enemy fighters is what the Akash does best. For years the DRDO laboured to fit the entire Akash system — including radars, missile launchers and command centres — into T-72 tanks. This provided the Akash with the cross-country mobility to advance deep into enemy territory along with Indian Army strike corps, shooting down enemy fighters at ranges as far out as 25 kilometres.
Planned as a replacement for the army’s obsolescent Russian SAM-6 Kvadrat, the heart of an Akash missile battery is the Hyderabad-developed Rajendra phased-array radar that tracks up to 64 enemy fighter aircraft simultaneously, in a radius of 60 kilometres. The mobile command centre selects up to four of the most threatening air targets, and two Akash missiles are fired at each from the T-72 based Akash launchers, which move alongside. The Rajendra radar continuously guides the missiles, eventually “flying” them smack into the enemy fighters.
Theoretically, a “ripple” of two Akash missiles has a 99 per cent chance of shooting down a modern fighter aircraft. Practically, however, in 9 live Akash trials so far, all 9 missiles that were fired hit their targets. Videos of the firing trials, witnessed by Business Standard, show the Akash missiles smashing their targets into tiny fragments at ranges beyond 20 kilometres.
The DRDO has taken 20 years to develop the cross-country mobile, tank-mounted version of the Akash missile system that the army is now interested in. Criticism of this delay has been vocal, but the DRDO counters by pointing to the quality of its product: the Akash, says the DRDO, is the only system of its kind available globally.
A top DRDO scientist at the missile complex in Hyderabad points out, “Western countries like France, which make missiles in the technological league of the Akash, don’t mount the entire system on a tank, something that the Indian Army insists on. Only the Russians build tank-mounted missile systems, but their missile technology is far inferior to that of the Akash. All that the Russians can offer today is the next generation of the Kvadrat.”
The defence PSU, Bharat Electronics Limited, is the nodal production agency for the Akash missile system, supported by a broad consortium of Indian public and private sector manufacturers who contribute components and sub-systems. Bharat Dynamics Limited manufactures the solid-fuel, two-stage, ramjet Akash missile itself.
Army warms up to Akash missile IDRW.ORG
---------- Post added at 10:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 AM ----------
Indian tank fights doubts over performance
The Indian army will take at least 124 of the controversial Indian-made Arjun tanks by April, according to media reports.But the army still doubts its performance as the country’s proposed main battle tank to replace hundreds of Russian-made T-90 tanks.W. Selvamurthy, head of research and development at the Defense Research and Development Organization, made the announcement, saying many of the tanks are already being manufactured and getting readied for delivery.
“All of them will get inducted into the armed forces in March and April,” Selvamurthy said in a report in the Times of India newspaper. “Other organizations are also giving us orders.”He was speaking at the valedictory function of a training course at the Defense Institute of Advanced Technology at Girinagar, near the city of Pune.The DRDO project manages the Arjun, which has been designed and is being made by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Avadi, in the state of Tamil Nadu.
But the project has been 35 years in the making, and getting the first batch operational has been a battle in itself, lasting a decade, according to a report in the Hindustan Times newspaper last May.Around 45 examples are already being used by the army, said the report. Yet the vehicle faces extensive comparative trials with the T-90s to see just how much the military can depend on it.The Hindustan Times article said the Arjun was plagued with a number of major problems concerning its fire control system, suspension and poor mobility due to its excessive weight, coming in at just under 60 tons. The T-90s weigh in at around 45 tons.
Performance issues rose as early as 2000 prompting the army to begin ordering the T-90s instead of waiting for improvements to, and delivery of, Arjun tanks.More than 390 T-90s were ordered in 2001, and last November another 347 were ordered. Also, as part of the deal, the Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory in India has begun the licensed manufacture of another 1,000 T-90S tanks. The army is also upgrading nearly 700 T-72 tanks.
In July 2008 the army said it needs nearly 1,800 dependable tanks to replace the older Russian T-55 and T-72 tanks. This will be met through the progressive induction of 1,657 Russian-origin T-90S tanks and 124 Arjuns.The Arjun measures just under 33 feet long and 12 feet wide. Armor is a Kanchan steel-composite sandwich development. A 1,400hp diesel engine gives it an operational range of 280 miles with a speed of 45 mph on roads and 25 mph cross-country.
The 120mm rifled main turret gun can fire the LAHAT anti-tank missile. Secondary armaments are a MAG 7.62mm Tk715 coaxial machine gun and an HCB 12.7mm AA machine gun.Indian media reported in May 2008 that the tank was found to have low accuracy, frequent breakdown of power packs and problems with the gun barrel. Details of failures during trials were embarrassingly noted in question-and-answer times by ministers and elected representatives in the nation’s parliament, the Lok Sabha.
The DRDO said it needs to have up to 300 rolling off the production line in order to see where all the performance issues lie. It wants the army to eventually take at least 500 tanks before any serious upgrades can be considered.The Arjun tank is named after one of the main characters of the Indian epic poem the Mahabharata. The discussion of life and karma is the longest epic poem in the world, being roughly 10 times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined.
The Arjun news comes just after the end of a joint exercise by the Singapore armed Forces and the Indian army in Devlali, India. Soldiers from the 23rd and 24th Battalion, Singapore Artillery, and the Indian army’s 283 Field Regiment took part.The exercise, which included live firing of the SAF’s FH-88 Howitzer guns and 155mm Battery guns from the Indian army, was the fifth in the Agni Warrior series. It began on Oct. 9 and ended Oct. 26.
Indian tank fights doubts over performance IDRW.ORG
