I have noticed here that people who claim insider knowledge are made think tanks, since they claim above average knowledge of systems.
If Pakistan army is half as professional as the Indian army, (which I am sure they are), it cannot let insider knowledge get to a bunch of showboys.
I'd rather take these titles and insider knowledge with dollops of salt...
This is usually verified. Moreover, leave that distinction to us. Sandy is an excellent example of how we select people so you are insulting him as well. Suggest you stick to the topic and refute posts.
Now, the argument was on the lineage of Indian missiles vs Pakistanis Missiles.
Lets put it this way, the Ghauri series is clearly the Nodong; first painted and fired as it is off ships coming in from North Korea and later improved with home made guidance systems along with smaller engine improvements.
The Shaheen series is modified form of existing blueprints and apart from aerodynamics has less in Common with other missiles than thought. Essentially the whole lineup is a mix of existing designs heavily modified for requirements or local derivations of that basic design. It is hard to deny that the Babur looks a lot like the Tomahawk but whats inside it has little to do with the BGM-109.
The first Indian missiles by contrast were attempts to emulate Russian designs.. the Prithvi does look like a basic rocket design but at the end limited by the origins of its engine which are reportedly based on the Sa-2.
The Agni-I it might be argued as a copy of a Russian or Israeli missile but that it just conjecture, one could say that the Brahmos is Russian but then it is based on the P-800 Oniks so it does have a lot of Russian input.
Essentially the reason behind this is that India's closest partner in Russia was also the most monitored by the MCTR protocols and hence could only provide technology components and not missiles lest it be accused of violating these restrictions. Otherwise all Indian missiles would be simple Russian ones since any country would find it a lot easier to invest 100 and get 4 excellent missile systems rather than spend 1000 and get 5 untried prototypes. Further corroboration of the desperation facing Indian scientists during the 90's can be taken from accounts of Pakistani and Indian "
delegations" meeting in the same drawing rooms of "
fixers" that provide "
consultancy" and "
procurement" services in the black market in places like Dubai.
Which is why till recently India was behind in
Deployed Missile tech as compared to Pakistan. However, as I have posted here a while back the reason is for the different approaches taken in missile development by the two parties due to the different environment available to them. One had access to entire missile systems if they wished(which were sophisticated in propulsion but not in guidance), while the other had access to various technologies but was dogged both by bureaucratic tape and R&D failures.
Compare the two philosophies to baking cake. One decides to learn how to make cake with eggs, and flour and so on. In that process, they get it right 2 times and ten times wrong. The other uses a cake mix and only changes the flavour it puts in and icing.
The first one does not have such easy access to cake mix but better ingredients.. the latter has ok cake mix but better access to the rest. So for the initial while, the second one will make better tasting cake while the first one learns how to make the batter in the first place. It is also cheaper to get readymade cake mix than doing it from scratch.
At some point, one has become the master of cake mixes and has even learnt how to do basic batter. While the other has eventually mastered the entire batter process. Essentially , both can make good cake. But the cake mix guy has to look for cake mixes he can adapt since his batter skills arent all that good. The cake batter guy however, is no longer dependant on anyone to improve his batter and even with help does 50% of the task himself. So while in the past the cake mix guy would easily edge ahead by improvise and adapt cake mixes.. he is limited by them. The cake batter guy will have his road open to make any sort of cake he wants.. since he at least has better idea of the batter.
Bad example, but I cant find my earlier detailed post on the subject so this will have to do.
