Abingdonboy
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 29,597
- Reaction score
- 46
- Country
- Location
By the time India’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh heads for Washington DC later this month, the decks will have been cleared for a landmark, long-awaited agreement between India and the US that calls for the joint development and production of thermobaric and penetration-cum-blast warheads optimised for high-altitude warfare for precision-guided munitions such as Raytheon’s third-generation FGM-148 Javelin fire-and-forget anti-armour guided-missiles; lightweight, SMAW-2NE one-man portable shoulder-fired, reusable anti-armour rockets capable of defeating armoured vehicles, enemy bunkers and other reinforced positions at high altitudes; and Excalibur GPS-guided 155mm field artillery-launched projectiles. Detailed negotiations on this far-reaching agreement got underway on September 4 at the Pentagon between US Deputy Defense Secretary of Ashton Carter and the Director-General of India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Chief Scientific Adviser to India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) Dr Avinash Chander, who was accompanied by Nirupama Rao, India’s Ambassador to the US, and Vikram Singh, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia.
The MoD’s Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC), led by Defence Minister A K Antony, had taken up the procurement of the fire-and-forget FGM-148 and SMAW-2NE for clearance on April 2, 2013, following which the MoD’s approved the DRDO’s proposal for jointly developing the high-altitude warfare-optimised warheads for the two anti-armour weapon systems and also the procurement of Excalibur 155mm rounds whose terminal guidance GPS suite will be totally compatible with the PY-precision codes offered by India’s indigenous IRNSS constellation of GPS navigation satellites. By the first half of next year, therefore, the MoD and its wholly owned DPSUs like Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) will be able to ink military-industrial agreements for both the joint development of thermobaric and HE/FRAG penetration-cum-blast warheads as well as the licenced-production of the FIM-148 Javelin’s missile rounds (the launchers will be licence-assembled by BDL) as well as the SMAW-2NE’s modified 83mm Mk80 rocket (containing a thermobaric HEDP warhead), while the re-usuable launchers will be licence-assembled by OFB. Present plans call for equipping the 1.13 million-strong Indian Army’s existing 356 infantry battalions and the projected 30 infantry battalions to be raised in the 13th five-year defence plan (2018-2022) with 4,000 Javelin launchers and up to 26,000 missile-rounds (including war wastage reserves) and 12,000 SMAW-2NE launchers and up to 80,000 rounds of various types.
The Indian Army had zeroed in on the FGM-148 Javelin as far back as 2008 after it had conducted in-country summer user-evaluations of the RAFAEL of Israel-built Spike-ER ATGM. During these evaluations, seven out of the 10 missiles fired missed their targets because their on-board uncooled long-wave infra-red (LWIR) sensors failed to distinguish their targets from their surroundings (an identical problem had also beset the Nag ATGM’s uncooled LWIR sensors last year during user-evaluations). In contrast, the Javelin uses a cooled mid-wave IR (MWIR) sensor that can passively lock-on to targets at up to 50% farther range than an uncooled sensor, thus allowing the firing crew greater and safer standoff distance, and less likely to be exposed to counter-fire. As far as weight is concerned, the cooling equipment adds less than 2 lb per weapon.
The uncooled sensor is not only less reliable, but its long-LWIR spectrum is only compatible with a dome made of softer materials that vulnerable to abrasion in harsh environments (e.g., deserts) and consequently require replacement more often. The cooled seeker’s MWIR spectrum allows a durable hardened dome, and it is better than LWIR in discerning threats in certain geographic locations or environmental conditions. An uncooled sensor thus brings increased repairs, decreased operational availability, and dangerous vulnerabilities, while a cooled IIR sensor saves lives, lessens fratricide, minimises collateral damage, lowers risk, and protects its firing platforms/crew.
Presently, the Indian Army is authorised by the MoD to have a total of 81,206 ATGMs, with each infantry battalion deployed in the plains being armed with four medium-range (1.8km-range) and four long-range (4km-range) ATGM launchers (each with six missiles), and those in the mountains have one of each type along with six missiles for each launcher. In reality, however, the Indian Army’s total existing inventory of ATGMs now stands at only 44,000 that includes 10,000 second-generation MBDA-developed and BDL-built SACLOS wire-guided Milan-2 ATGMs and 4,600 launchers; 4,100 second-generation MBDL-supplied Milan-2T ATGMs; 15,000 second-generation 4km-range 9M113M Konkurs-M SACLOS wire-guided ATGMs licence-built by BDL, plus another 10,000 that are now being supplied off-the-shelf by Russia’s JSC Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod. Also on order are an initial 443 DRDO-developed third-generation Nag fire-and-forget ATGMs along with 13 DRDO-developed NAMICA tracked ATGM launchers.
It was in 2003 that Indian Army HQ had formulated a General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) in 2003 for acquiring the Milan-2T, armed with a tandem-warhead. The tandem warhead was to be licence-built by BDL under ToT from MBDA. The GSQR of the in-service Milan-2 had provided for an essential range as 1,850 metres and a desirable range of 2,000 metres. The GSQR of 2003 for the Milan-2T had indicated the range as 2,000 metres. The RFP for procurement of 4,100 Milan-2Ts was issued to BDL in January 2007. The MoD’s Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) did not find the product offered by BDL compliant with the GSQR as the range of 2,000 metres offered had only 1,850 metres under wire-guidance phase, while the last 150 metres was left unguided (along with the first 75 metres after missile launch). The case for procurement was therefore closed in May 2007. Subsequently, BDL confirmed that the guidance-range of the Milan-2T would be 2,000 metres. The case was re-opened and trials of the Milan-2T were conducted in February 2008. Based on the firing trial results, Indian Army HQ did not recommend its introduction into service in view of difficulties in engaging moving targets during the last 150 metres. In addition, the requirement was not met in terms of flight-time and overall weight. Furthermore, third-generation ATGMs were already available in the global market by June 2006.
Based on representations from the staff union of BDL to the then Minister of State for Defence Production & Supplies (since non-placement of orders for Milan-2Ts would result in redeployment of BDL’s workforce and already procured materials common to Milan-2/-2T would have to be junked), it was decided to procure a minimum required quantity of Milan-2Ts in May 2008 by amending the GSQR in August 2008 for the Milan-2T with 1,850 metres range and with the waiver of in-country firing-trials, after considering the long lead-times required for procuring third-generation ATGMs, and the fact that the shelf-life of existing stocks of Milan-2 would expire by 2013. The revised RFP was issued to BDL in September 2008 as per the amended GSQR. The MoD concluded a procurement contract with BDL in December 2008 for the supply of 4,100 Milan-2T ATGMs at a cost of Rs.587.02 crore with a staggered delivery schedule to be completed within 36 months from the effective date of contract.
Nag/NAMICA Saga
User-evaluation trials of the 4km-range Nag ATGM’s uncooled LWIR sensor were carried out in hot desert conditions in Rajasthan on July 28 and 29, 2012 at the Mahajan firing range against both moving and static targets for different ranges of 2.8km and 3.2km. Of the four missiles fired, only one hit the target. In all, eight firing-trials were planned, between July and August 4, with a reconfigured NAMICA (now housing a COMPASS optronic panoramic turret procured by Bharat Electronics Ltd from ELBIT Systems). On July 28, while one Nag, tested for a range of 2,500 metres, hit the bull’s eye, the second failed to destroy a target 700 metres away owing to a problem in its uncooled LWIR sensor. In the subsequent trials on August 1, two Nags missed their targets positioned at 1,300 metres and 2,500 metres, respectively, since there was inadequate thermal contrast for the LWIR sensor to lock-on and track the target before the missile was launched. Consequently, the uncooled LWIR sensor proved to be accurate only up to 2.5km in extremely hot conditions.
The DRDO has since modified the LWIR sensor by incorporating a miniaturised cryogenic cooling system and during firing-trials conducted last month, this sensor successfully engaged all eight of its targets—both fixed and moving. Each NAMICA—destined for equipping the Recce & Support Battalions of the Indian Army’s mechanised infantry formations—can carry 12 Nags, with eight of them in ready-to-fire mode. The ATGM has a flight speed of 230 metres per second, is armed with a 8kg tandem shaped-charge warhead, has a rocket motor using nitramine-based smokeless extruded double base sustainer propellant, has a single-shot hit probability of 0.77 and a CEP of 0.9 metres, and has a 10-year maintenance-free shelf-life.
Presently under development is the helicopter-launched version of the Nag, known as HELINA. This ATGM will use a DRDO-developed active fire-and-forget, adverse-weather millimeter wave (MMW) radar sensor, and have a range of 8km. However, HELINA’s R & D cycle is unlikely to be completed by 2015 at the very latest, and consequently, the Indian Army’s initial 60 HAL-developed ‘Rudra’ helicopter-gunships will in all probability be armed with up to 480 MBDA-supplied PARS-3LR ATGMs.
TRISHUL: Long-Overdue But Welcome Accretions
@Dillinger @Blue_***_in_space @INDIC @neehar @sancho @he-man @S-DUCT @Flamingo @SR-91 @Roybot
Last edited by a moderator:
8/8
![[Bregs]](/data/avatars/m/148/148509.jpg?1491816884){kind=avatar}
