New rocket system to guard Indian coast

[Veeru]

New rocket system to guard Indian coast

NEW DELHI: The DRDO is currently testing a new short-range coastal security rocket system for deployment on shore and on board ships to target rogue boats such as those used by terrorists to carry out the Mumbai attacks.

The DRDO's Chandipur-based Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) is testing the 4-km range 140mm rockets that can accurately target the smaller boats and sink them, according to S Sundaresh, Chief Controller of Research and Development (Armament and Combat Engineering) of the premier defence research agency.

Developed in collaboration with the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Navy's Directorate General of Naval Armament and Inspection, the rockets' development and likely production are being fast-tracked following the 26/11 terror strikes, he said.

PXE Director Major General P Mathur said the coastal security weapon comes with a launcher and 12 rockets that can be fired simultaneously to rain the warhead over the intended target.

"This is cost-effective weapon system. But it is now in the developmental stage. OFB is the production agency," Mathur said.

The remote operated rocket system is an indigenous development that emerged out of the confluence of the minds from the OFB, DRDO and the Navy, who would be the users of the weapon.

"It has been proposed to deploy these rockets all along the 7,516-km-long coastline of ours including the island territories. We expect the weapon system to go into production within months from now," a Navy officer associated with the project said.

"Apart from being deployed on the shore, the rocket system can be mounted on ships too," he added.

To acquire targets, the user will have to visually identify the rogue or enemy boats and then use his remote control to fire the rocket barrage on them.

Though the three defence agencies were already working on the rocket system project even before the 26/11 attack, the weapon has now become "a hot property" and there is a sense of urgency to get it operational, Navy officials added.

New rocket system to guard Indian coast - The Economic Times

 

[JayAtl]

how could one identify small boats in the dead of night on such a large stretch of coastlines?

 

[BS_Buster]

India is doing so much to protect the citizens.

 

[sathya]

night vision or thermal imaging probably

 

[BS_Buster]

how could one identify small boats in the dead of night on such a large stretch of coastlines?

BEL says new coastal surveillance system is ready

By Ajai Shukla
Bangalore, Business Standard, 27th Nov 10

At least one of the lessons of the Mumbai terror strike of 26/11 --- when ten Laskhar-e-Toiba terrorists set out from Karachi, hijacked an Indian fishing boat, the MV Kuber, and sailed into the heart of Mumbai undetected --- have been fully absorbed by the government. The approaches to India’s coastline will soon be amongst the most carefully watched waters in the world.

In the aftermath of 26/11, the apex Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) issued detailed orders, and allocated funds, to implement a Coastal Surveillance Scheme, to ensure a 24x7x365 watch over India’s 7600-kilometre coastline so that no hostile elements could sneak in by sea again.

The Coastal Surveillance Scheme is ready for implementation. It relies on a chain of electro-optic sensors --- i.e. radars, and day and night cameras --- that are being installed on lighthouses and towers that look out at the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The key challenge in setting up the scheme has been in transmitting the data picked up from multiple sensors all along the coast to surveillance centres located in the interior, and then integrating that data into a coherent operational picture.

That problem has now been solved, says defence PSU, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which is putting the finishing touches on the software for the Coastal Surveillance Scheme. On a visit to BEL Bangalore, Business Standard was demonstrated how the Rs 700 crore system would function within a Remote Operating Station, the name for the Coast Guard surveillance centre that would be receiving data from a chain of lighthouses and towers along the coast. Advanced “data fusion” techniques are then employed to integrate all that information.

“Data fusion has been a key design challenge”, affirms BEL’s R&D chief, I V Sarma. “If two adjoining radars pick up a single boat, which often happens, the software must recognised that and combine those two images into that of a single boat. Fortunately, BEL had built up enormous experience in data fusion while developing the navy’s Combat Management Systems, which also integrates the inputs from multiple radars on board a warship; and also while building an Integrated Air Command and Control System for the IAF.”

Besides integrating multiple inputs into a common operational picture, the software allows the Remote Operating Station to remotely manipulate its coastal radars and cameras --- through a Camera Management System --- to observe suspicious objects in greater detail. In a quick demonstration staged for Business Standard, an oil tanker, which had been detected by a thermal-imaging night vision camera at a distance of 36 kilometers from the coast, was declared a suspicious vessel. A click by the operator on the oil tanker’s screen image automatically fed its coordinates to the camera, which zoomed in quickly, giving the operator a detailed look.

“The cameras and radars are Israeli”, admit the BEL operators, “but we are working on developing them indigenously.”

The software also performs other tasks that include monitoring the health of the remote systems; and an alarm system that alerts the operators when a vessel enters a designated “sensitive zone”;

In Phase 1, the coast guard is setting up 46 electro-optic sensor stations in high-threat areas, and 12 Remote Operating Stations. This will be expanded in Phase 2 to cover the entire coastline within three years. The most recent installations are radar stations in Dwarka and Navodra, which feed into a Remote Operating Station at Porbandar, about 100 km away. Distance is irrelevant, with data being transmitted through two dedicated lines of 2 MBPS each.

The 12 Remote Operating Stations feed into one of four Regional Operating Centres at Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai and Visakhapatanam. Finally, all this information is fed in real time to the apex Control Centre at New Delhi, where it is integrated into a single national-level picture.

For this, the Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal agency but coordinates with multiple agencies, including the coastal state governments; the fisheries department; the department of lighthouses and lightships; and port authorities, amongst others.

 

[Ammyy]

"It has been proposed to deploy these rockets all along the 7,516-km-long coastline of ours including the island territories. We expect the weapon system to go into production within months from now," a Navy officer associated with the project said.

140mm rockets

Very compact to carry

 

[JayAtl]

sweet technology but in the case of 26/11 attacks the boat commandeered was a fishing boat. which would look like a normal fishing boat unless you get high definition videos of each of the people on board? yeah?

I'm thinking in terms of this technology, if it was present, would it have identified those terrorist on an Indian fishing boat...

 

[mehboobkz]

Very compact to carry

Weapon comes with a launcher and 12 rockets!

How will you carry?

Transportable yes!

 

[MYSTIC]

could this have avoided 26/11 attack?

 

[Materialistic]

sweet technology but in the case of 26/11 attacks the boat commandeered was a fishing boat. which would look like a normal fishing boat unless you get high definition videos of each of the people on board? yeah?

I'm thinking in terms of this technology, if it was present, would it have identified those terrorist on an Indian fishing boat...

buddy, even the HD pictures or something more than that would also not help in such a case.

Because the intruders of such a kind would of course be carrying small weapons like guns and grenades and all these things can be hidden easily inside the boat structure like making a fake floor etc..

In such a scenario i think personal inspection is the only way!!

 

[JayAtl]

buddy, even the HD pictures or something more than that would also not help in such a case.

Because the intruders of such a kind would of course be carrying small weapons like guns and grenades and all these things can be hidden easily inside the boat structure like making a fake floor etc..

In such a scenario i think personal inspection is the only way!!

although, come to think of it. perhaps this would have spotted the Pakistani ship that sailed in ? that ship had to come into Indian waters to unload the terrorists.

 

[syntax_error]

could this have avoided 26/11 attack?

not really
they hijacked a Indian trawler.... and this was the first time....
they will be more careful from now on