Indian Missiles - News, Developments, Tests, and Discussions

[jawadqamar]

Not credible. I have seen this news. There are no confirmations to back this up.

There is the typical pattern that has appeared in recent years ie tests are announced as success but later on these were proved failures examples of Agni-III test and Brahmos tests are already in front of us so there is enough history in front of us to back such news until Indian army them self declares that these tests are successful



Agni-II fired, jury still out on test's success


In a step towards making the 2,000-km-plus Agni-II fully operational, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) conducted a "training
test-firing'' of the nuclear-capable missile on Tuesday.

Though the test was conducted from Wheeler Island, near Dhamra off the Orissa coast, at about 10.05 am, defence officials till late evening were reluctant to dub the test "fully successful''.

"The missile launch did take off properly but it's difficult to say whether the complete test was successful in meeting all the laid-down flight objectives,'' said a senior official.

 

[fhassan]

This is what the times of India reports:

"Agni-II fired, jury still out on test's success"

NEW DELHI: In a step towards making the 2,000-km-plus Agni-II fully operational, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) conducted a "training
test-firing'' of the nuclear-capable missile on Tuesday.

Though the test was conducted from Wheeler Island, near Dhamra off the Orissa coast, at about 10.05 am, defence officials till late evening were reluctant to dub the test "fully successful''.

"The missile launch did take off properly but it's difficult to say whether the complete test was successful in meeting all the laid-down flight objectives,'' said a senior official.

"It can be called a success or a failure only after a detailed analysis of telemtry data generated by the flight-test. It was a completely user-driven trial, with the Army missile unit under the SFC conducting the test,'' he added.

The test is significant since it is the first "training user-trial'' of Agni-II, which weighs 17 tonnes and can carry a 1.15-tonne payload or warhead, to give soldiers the requisite capability to fire the surface-to-surface missile on its own without the help of defence scientists.

The tri-Service SFC has already undertaken the "training trials'' of 700-km Agni-I, designed to plug the operational gap between Prithvi (150-350 km) and Agni-II missiles.

SFC, as also the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), were created in January 2003 to ensure proper command and control structures around India's nuclear arsenal after the 10-month troop mobilisation along the Indo-Pak border under `Operation Parakram' in the wake of the December 2001 Parliament attack.

NCA's political council led by the PM is the "sole body which can authorise the use of nuclear weapons'', with the SFC tasked with executing such directives.

The only nuclear-capable ballistic missile which can be said to be 100% operational as of now is the short-range Prithvi missile. Though Agni-I and Agni-II are being inducted into the armed forces, it will take some time for them to become "fully-operational in the numbers required''.

The fourth test of 3,500-km Agni-III, which will give India the strategic capability to hit targets deep inside China is also on the anvil now.

But Agni-III, tested successfully only twice in April 2007 and May 2008, will also not be ready for induction before 2012. Development of the country's most ambitious strategic missile with near ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, the 5,000-km range Agni-V, is also underway to ensure its first test is conducted by 2010-2011 or so.

Agni-II fired, jury still out on test's success - India - The Times of India

Currently, Pakistan is way ahead of you

Shaheen 2 for example, was inducted in 2004! yet you guys still have no long range missiles?

 

[Gabbar]

Currently, Pakistan is way ahead of you

A country can send a satelite to moon but can't develop a long rang missile? I would wait for more news to come. Same thing you guys were saying when Brahmos hit a snag but it was corrected. I would hold on to my champagne bottle for now.

 

[fhassan]

A country can send a satelite to moon but can't develop a long rang missile?

False logic, Iran too sent a satelite yet its longest range missile is only 2000KM.

In terms of long range ballisitic missiles, pakistan is way ahead of your sirjee.

 

[jawadqamar]

India can certainly develop long-range missiles and atleast I have no doubts about that, but I just cant digest the fact that WHY DRDO tries to hide the failures after tests?(First AGNI-III then Brahmos and now Agni-II) By doing so they are not only hearting their credibility but also credibility of India’s strategic forces

Such attitue does put question marks about other tests also, if those were successful or DRDO was luky and they just did not get cought by media in those tests

 

[Hasnain2009]

Not credible. I have seen this news. There are no confirmations to back this up.

Bro that is indian source!

And ur missile test always fails but ur media says that it was successfull

India test-fires Agni-III missile - India - The Times of India

9 Jul 2006, 1142 hrs IST, PTI

ORISSA: India's most sophisticated intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Agni-III was on Sunday test-fired from a range off the Orissa coast.


The indigenously built surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile, with a range of 3,500 km, was test-fired from a fixed platform at the launch complex of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at the Wheeler's Island at about 11:05 am, defence sources said.

Described as the most powerful of India's missiles developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Agni-III has the capability of carrying a payload of 1000 kg, the sources said.

Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and his scientific advisor M Natarajan were present at the launch complex located in the Wheeler Island off the Dhamra coast to witness the launch of the missile.

Eyewitnesses said the sleek missile roared into the overcast sky leaving behind a trail of thick yellow smoke and fire and vanished into the clouds within seconds.

Fitted with an onboard computer, it took off vertically into space and re-entered again to the splash down point near Nicobar island in the Bay of Bengal, the sources said.

India 'successfully' test fires N-capable Agni III

Balasore, April 12 2007: India on Thursday test fired its nuclear capable 3,000 km intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-III from the Interim Test Range (ITR) at the Wheeler's Island in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.



Minutes after the launch Defence Ministry said that the test fire was successful.

The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile, blasted off at 10.52 am from a fixed platform with the help of an auto launcher in the launch complex-4 of the ITR, located about 72 km from here, Defence sources said.

The sleek missile vertically roared into the clear sky leaving behind a thick column of white and yellow smoke, eyewitness accounts said.

And now same source is saying that it will be operational in 2010-2011

India lags behind Pakistan in missiles - India - The Times of India

2 Feb 2009, 0217 hrs IST, Rajat Pandit , TNN

NEW DELHI: With active help from China and North Korea, Pakistan has surged well ahead of India in the missile arena. The only nuclear-capable
ballistic missile in India's arsenal which can be said to be 100% operational as of now is the short-range Prithvi missile.

Though the 700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km-plus Agni-II ballistic missiles are being "inducted" into the armed forces, it will take "some time" for them to become "fully-operational in the numbers required".

Defence sources said the armed forces were still in the process of undertaking the "training trials" of Agni-I and Agni-II to give them the requisite capabilities to fire them on their own.

Of the two, the progress report of Agni-I, tested for the first time in January 2002 to plug the operational gap between Prithvi (150-350 km) and Agni-II missiles, is much better. The Army has already conducted two "user training trials", one in October 2007 and other in March 2008, of the Pakistan-specific Agni-I missile.

The fourth test of 3,500-km Agni-III, which will give India the strategic capability to hit targets deep inside China, is also on the anvil now. But Agni-III, tested successfully only twice in April 2007 and May 2008, will not be ready for induction before 2012.

Then, of course, design work on India's most ambitious strategic missile with near ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, the 5,000-km range Agni-V, which incorporates a third composite stage in the two-stage Agni-III, is also in progress. "We should be ready to test Agni-V by 2010-2011," said an official.

So, in effect, the missile report card is rather dismal at present. "Unlike Pakistan, our programme is indigenous. But a strategic missile needs to be tested 10 to 15 times, over a variety of flight envelopes and targets, before it can be said to be fully-operational. A missile cannot be dubbed ready just after three to four tests," said an expert.

Keeping this benchmark in mind, only Prithvi can be dubbed to be fully ready. Defence PSUs like Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, in fact, are stepping up production of the different Prithvi variants.

Army, for instance, has orders worth Rs 1,500 crore for 75 Prithvi-I and 62 Prithvi-II missiles, while IAF has gone in for 63 Prithvi-II missiles for over Rs 900 crore.

Navy, in turn, has ordered Dhanush missiles, the naval version of Prithvi, with a 350 km strike range, for its "dual-tasked" warships, INS Subhadra and INS Suvarna.

India wants to gatecrash into the very exclusive club of `Big-Five' countries like Russia, US and China, which have both ICBMs (missiles with strike ranges over 5,500-km) and SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), before 2015.

The SLBM quest is specifically crucial since it's the most effective and secure leg of the "nuclear weapon triad", with land-based missiles and aircraft capable of delivering nuclear bombs constituting the first two components.

The initial range of K-15 SLBM being developed by DRDO will, however, be limited to 750-km, far less than the over 5,000-km range SLBMs brandished by the `Big-5' countries.

The plan is to go for higher strike ranges after the initial K-15 missiles are integrated into the indigenous nuclear-powered submarines being built under the secretive ATV (advanced technology vessel) programme.

Times of India and Express India reported in 2007 and 2006 that Agni-III tested successfully and in 2009 Times of India said that Agni-II and Agni - II will not be operational before 2010-11!

 

[fhassan]

can a moderator please change the name of the thread to:

India test-fires nuke-capable Agni II missile, success of which is questionable.

 

[Hasnain2009]

Oldy but goody

Pakistan nukes outstrip India?s, officials say - - MSNBC.com​

U.S. reverses assessment of South Asia nuclear balance

An April 1999 test of India's Agni missile, described by the Pentagon as 10 years away from operational status.
By Robert Windrem and Tammy Kupperman
NBC News
updated 10:35 a.m. ET Oct. 24, 2003

WASHINGTON, June 6 - Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is vastly superior to that of rival India, with up to five times the nuclear warheads, say U.S. military and intelligence officials now reassessing the South Asian balance of power. Interviews with senior U.S. officials in the past week revealed the view that Pakistan not only has more warheads than its longtime adversary, but has far more capability to actually use them.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTS by India and Pakistan in May 1998 caught American intelligence off guard. While U.S. agencies long had known about weapons-development research in both countries, the decision by both to go public with their capabilities shocked policymakers.

Since then, U.S. intelligence and diplomacy has focused on South Asia with a new intensity. Until recently, for instance, Pakistan was considered to have somewhere between 10 and 15 nuclear weapons and India between 25 and 100.

But after two years of intelligence gathering, officials now believe those figures overstate the capabilities of India’s home-grown arsenal and understate those of Pakistan, whose program has relied on generous Chinese assistance. One official said the Pakistanis “are more likely to have those numbers [25 to 100 weapons] than the Indians.”

Perhaps most important, the official said, is that Pakistan appears far more capable than India of delivering nuclear payloads. “I don’t think their [the Indian] program is as advanced as the Paks,” the official said, speaking particularly of ballistic missiles.

Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said longtime assumptions that India had an edge in the South Asian strategic balance of power were questionable, at best.

“Don’t assume that the Pakistani nuclear capability is inferior to the Indians,” said Zinni, the senior U.S. officer responsible for the Middle East and South Asia.

Other military and intelligence officials, as well as an intelligence analysis of South Asia’s nuclear balance obtained by NBC News, shed more light on the revised view. NBC News is the broadcast partner of the MSNBC.com joint venture.

“They both have a capability,” said one senior military official. “Pakistan’s may be better than India’s, with more weapons and more capability.

“You can’t underestimate the Pakistani program,” said the official. Like most of the officials NBC News contacted, this one would speak only on condition of anonymity.

DOCUMENTS SUPPORT REVISED VIEW


These officials believe India understands that it is behind. A recent Defense Department analysis of the Indian program obtained by MSNBC.com states that India is moving to address its shortcomings.

Quoting India’s recently publicized draft nuclear doctrine, the Defense Department report said that “India announced its plans to develop a minimum nuclear deterrent force comprised of a triad of nuclear delivery systems - air, mobile land-based launches and sea-based platforms. The air component of its triad is the only one that may be in place already.”

The U.S. report also states that “India probably has a handful of nuclear bombs,” meaning about five. With regard to delivery systems - the missiles and bombers needed to launch a nuclear strike - U.S. officials now believe Indian capabilities to be seriously lagging.

According to the Defense Department document, which is unclassified, India has no nuclear-capable missiles and fewer aircraft capable of delivering a nuclear payload than Pakistan does. India has twice tested a new intermediate-ranged missile, the Agni, which may eventually provide the basis of a nuclear missile force. However, current U.S. analysis suggests the Agni will not be fielded with nuclear warheads for another 10 years. Additionally, India appears to only have begun work on missile warhead design and on the miniaturization of weapons - two critical hurdles to the actual use of weapons.

InsertArt(891823)The U.S. assessment of Pakistan, on the other hand, has been greatly upgraded.

A U.S. official stated that Pakistani air and missile delivery systems are now believed to be “fully capable of a nuclear exchange if something happens.” Other officials noted that Pakistan’s air force, with its U.S. F-16’s and its French Mirage fighter-bombers, are superior at penetrating enemy airspace than India’s Soviet-designed MiGs and Sukhois.

Most importantly, Pakistan is now thought to possess about 30 nuclear-capable missiles: the Chinese M-11 short-range missile and its Pakistani variant, the Tarmuk, as well as the North Korean Nodong intermediate-range missile (known locally as the Ghauri).

 

[zombie]

looks like the test failed. you cant make a mistake with 200 and 2000km.

 

[zombie]

looks like the test failed. you cant make a mistake with 200 and 2000km.

actually the test is successful(you want to catch issues).Its the product that failed.

 

[aimarraul]

2000KM?wow ,very impressive ,almost reach Beijing,still far way from Washington......keep going....

 

[abdulrafi]

In a step towards making the 2,000-km-plus Agni-II fully operational, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) conducted a "training test-firing'' of the nuclear-capable missile on Tuesday. Initially it was announced by Indian media that India has successfully tested the nuclear capable Agni-II missile from a defence base in Orissa, official sources said.The surface-to-surface missile with a range of over 2,000 km was test fired from the Wheeler’s Island near Dhamara in the district of Bhadrak, some 150 km from here at 10.06 a.m. “It was a user trial,” the sources said, adding that the aim of the test was to give the Army confidence to fire the missile on its own.




Update: Another repeat telecast of Agni-III and Brahmos episode? Where tests were announced as successful until they were proved failure by the media?




Agni-II, India's nuclear strike capability ballistic missile has reportedly failed to deliver desired result. The trial was conducted from Wheeler Island, part of the integrated test range of Orissa coast on Tuesday at about 10 am. Reliable sources at the Wheelers Island said the countdown was normal, liftoff was smooth and then disaster struck as the 2000 kms plus range Agni-II missile instead of traveling on the pre-determined trajectory started wandering midway. The missile deviated from its path after the first stage separation and was meandering at an angle of 180 degree midway. Though it was coordinated to cover a distance of nearly 2000 km, within just 127 seconds it covered 203 km before plunging into the sea, said the source. The guidance system can correct the missiles midway path deviation if it behaves erratically at an angle of 40 to 60 degree but not beyond that, said a defence scientist. The disaster might have happened due to design and manufacturing faults, he added. Similarly on July 9, 2006, the maiden test of Agni-III had failed to achieve the target as technical snags were reported during the separation of the first and the second stage. Agni-II missile was first tested on April 11, 1999, and inducted in the Army in 2004. The trial was conducted by the Army while scientists from DRDO provided the necessary logistical support. The unfortunate development will have a telling effect on the morale of the Army, said analysts.Several attempts to contact Agni project director, Avinash Chander and ITR director, S P Dash turned futile. There was no official word even from DRDO on the test. We are still analyzing the statistics about the flight performance and data from the launch pad and the three tracking stations are being thoroughtly examined, said a scientist, who is part of the missile programme. Several defence analysts have criticized the DRDO for the failure.“Agni project is an established project. In the deployment stage if the missile behaves like this, can we afford to hold the country to ransom security-wise. There should be some sort of accountability from scientists doing the research and development of the DRDO,” said an analyst.

 

[godsavetheworld]

2000KM?wow ,very impressive ,almost reach Beijing,still far way from Washington......keep going....

We'll let Iran and NK do that.

 

[Screaming Skull]

India Conducts Second Ballistic Missile Test In A Month​

Jun 19, 2009

NEW DELHI (AFP)--India on Friday successfully launched a ballistic missile in the second such trial of the nuclear-capable weapon in a month, the defense ministry said.

The Agni-II missile blasted off from a testing site in eastern India and " achieved all its flight parameters without hitch," a senior ministry official told AFP.

"It was a user trial conducted by the army and defense scientists," he said of the rocket, which the military says is capable of hitting targets deep inside adjoining China.

The test was the second since May 19 when a similar 2,500-kilometer (1,560- mile) range Agni-II was fired from the same site, hitting a pre-designated target in the Bay of Bengal.

The Indian-developed 20-meter-long missile weighs 16 tons and is capable of carrying one ton of conventional or nuclear warheads.

Friday's trial, part of the nation's efforts to build a credible minimum nuclear deterrent, paves the way for the missile's mass production and eventual induction by the Indian army, the official said.

India already has the 3,000-kilometer range Agni-III missile - the longest in the Agni series - which can also carry conventional or nuclear payloads.

Unconfirmed reports suggest India is also building an Agni variant with a range of 5,000 kilometers.

The Agni (Fire) is one of a series being developed by India's Defense Research Development Organization as part of the country's deterrent strategy against China and neighboring Pakistan, which also have nuclear weapons.

Agni-I, first tested in 1993, has a strike range of 1,500 kilometers.

India Conducts Second Ballistic Missile Test In A Month

 

[Khajur]

False logic, Iran too sent a satelite yet its longest range missile is only 2000KM.

In terms of long range ballisitic missiles, pakistan is way ahead of your sirjee.

There is a huge difference between india sending satellite to moon and launching of a communication satellite by iran.

I guess u have enough reasoning power to get this logic.

And regarding ballistic missiles tech, u can refer to neutral western sources to know who is ahead of whom.