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In the start, things are slower in India but once maturity is reached, the pace increases dramatically. Some projects were very successfull. Especially when things cannot be purchased from abroad like the missiles.
Going ballistic: India looks to join elite missile club
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_looks_to_join_elite_missile_club/articleshow/3034062.cms
NEW DELHI: By 2010-2011, India hopes to gatecrash into a very exclusive club of countries, which have both ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) as well as BMD (ballistic missile defence) capabilities.
Only the US and Russia strictly qualify for this club as of now, if all the three capabilities — ICBM, SLBM and BMD — are taken together, with countries like China not too far behind.
Top defence scientists, on the sidelines of the annual DRDO awards on Monday, told TOI they were quite confident India would have ICBMs and SLBMs, even though their strike ranges would be much lesser than American, Russian or Chinese missiles, as also a functional BMD system soon after the turn of this decade.
DRDO, of course, often promises much more than it delivers. But this time, it's ready to walk its talk, emboldened by the successful test of the 3,500-km range Agni-III missile last week.
Take ICBMs first. "We have already started the design work for Agni-V, with a range of over 5,000-km. It basically involves development of a third composite stage for the two-stage Agni-III," said Agni programme director Avinash Chander.
"We will be ready to test Agni-V by 2010," he added. There will not be an Agni-IV missile, with DRDO leapfrogging from intermediate range Agni-III to the almost ICBM-like Agni-V. "We have the capability to go for even longer ranges but it's for the political leadership to take a decision on such matters," said Chander.
As for the fledgling but "unique" two-tier BMD system, capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere, it will be tested again in July.
The BMD system has been tested two times till now. The first test was in November 2006 when an "exo-atmospheric" hypersonic interceptor missile successfully destroyed an incoming Prithvi missile at an altitude of around 40-50 km, demonstrating a capability akin to the Israeli Arrow-2 BMD system.
The second time, in December 2007, an "endo-atmospheric" interceptor successfully took on the "enemy" missile at a 15-km altitude, on the lines of the American Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system. "Around July, we will test the exo-interceptor again. This time, we will test it at an 80-km altitude against a longer range 'enemy' missile. Then, in September-October, we will test the exo and endo together," DRDO chief controller for missiles V K Saraswat told TOI.
"BMD is very important since there are ballistic missiles all around us. If you are strong in your defence, an adversary will think twice before any misadventure," he added. The BMD system should be ready for deployment by 2011 or so, after several tests against a variety of missiles to ensure a kill probability of 99.8%, said Saraswat.
The third capability in the shape of the K-15 SLBM, which has been tested only from submersible pontoon launchers so far, should also be ready by that time to be integrated into the indigenous nuclear-powered submarines being built under the secretive ATV (advanced technology vessel) programme.
The initial range of K-15 will, however, be limited to 750-km, far less than the over 5,000-km range SLBMs brandished by the 'Big-5' countries. Nevertheless, it will mark the completion of India's "nuclear triad", which so far is limited to the Agni missiles and fighters like Mirage-2000s jury-rigged to carry nuclear weapons.
Indian defence planners have long bemoaned the absence of nuclear-powered submarines, armed with nuclear-tipped missiles, since they are considered the most reliable, survivable and deadly nuclear weapons platforms.
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And the planes will crash, just like the recent crash of Hawk aircraft. Substandard parts were used and sold. Import is costly. Subject to sanctions, restrictions, inferior products etc. There is no way out other than indigenisation for India.
An Army under siege
http://frontierindia.net/an-army-under-siege
As time has gone by, the quality of the leadership has deteriorated. It has become a 1 million plus army and it does not has the culture to make its own weapons and fight. The kargil War showed the will of the young Indian soldiers to fight and win a war, the war has exposed to the paralysis of the Indian Army (IA) leadership. The Army General had to be criticised to come back from his arms shopping trip. Estimated 700,000 Indian Army personnel deployed in mountainous Kashmir and they did not have high altitude clothing.
Indian Army leadership has taken up complaining about anything and anything around it when it comes to indigenisation of critical arms and equipment. These equipment happens to be high value and puts considerable strain on foreign exchange. This equipments also represent lucrative arms market where abnormal influences exist.
The successive weak governments which came after the death of Indira Gandhi, till the dynamic leadership of PV Narasimha Rao, had neglected the Indian Defence forces and it has taken the toll on the equipment needs of Armed forces in general. The Cinderella sister, the Indian Navy (IN), the best of the what Indian Armed forces has, took this opportunity to develop Indian designs and build Indian warship with as much indigenous content possible. Then came the Soviet Union collapse and we saw IN scrambling to build indigenous and ingenious capacities to keep their Soviet ship content afloat. In fact the IN design house was so ambitious that it wanted to build an aircraft carrier, but, not backed up by the weak governments.
On the contrary, the IA made a mess of the indigenous projects. Indian Army has a huge engineering manpower which did no innovation and behave like glorified mechanics. Today, when IN flaunts its homegrown ships, IA likes to parade its imported weaponry to the world around.
The way forward
There is no point flogging the dead horse, but, its very necessary to understand what is happening now. Things have not improved yet with the army. It still looks around for imported means. The army has made a mess of itself when it comes to indigenous equipment. Take the case of Arjun Tank. The Army is the one which has issued its specs, then changed it often when it comes near deployment, then tested it till it develops mistakes. The Arjun Tank has exceeded its performance,but, the Army has not improved its act. Last we heard is that there was a possibility of sabotage during he Ary’s internal trials. Since then the Ministry of Defence has made the Director General Mechanised Forces responsible for overseeing the induction.
Another example is Akash and Trishul projects. It is often cited that even the Navy has rejected Trishul SAM. This is an invalid criticism; the naval version of the Trishul SAM is totally different from the Army and the Air force version. Akash has been demonstrated to perfection to the Indian Air Force (IAF), Trishul has been in limited induction by IAF for familiarisation. But, Army refuses to buy it. Here too the Ministry of Defence has taken a decision to keep the medium range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) with Israel on hold, trying to force the Army to accept the Akash Missile at least.
Then the Eurocopter helicopter deal where the Army was testing a model which it was not going to get. Fortunately the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited stepped in a proved that upgraded Cheetas and Chetaks do a much better job than the imported option. This also brings in the question mark on the Indian Army’s standards of testing.
In the first place the Director General Mechanised Forces and Director General Military operations of the Indian Army are responsible for equipment decision. This is where the buck stops. The government should start seriously auditing these positions for understanding what went wrong with indigenisation programs and effects of the import lobby. Indian Army should create a new position called Director General for indigenisation of equipment, if it already dosen’t exist.
It is normally end-user who must have the final say on the suitability of the equipment for the use, but, it is necessary to audit the end-user for their judgment. It has become very necessary to involve third party evaluators for the Army purchases considering the past examples.
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Yes, India did not use the Apache. I think the Apache can be deployed since the Singapore Air Force has deployed F-16's during the Air exercise.
The Indian Army's attack heli is armed Dhruv. http://www.army-technology.com/projects/dhruv/
The first flight of the dedicated attack heli known as the HAL Light Combat helicopter is expected in 2008.
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Singapore and Indian Armies Conduct Fourth Armour Exercise
The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Indian Army are conducting a bilateral armour exercise, codenamed Bold Kurukshetra, from 25 Mar to 5 May 08 in central India. This is the fourth in the Bold Kurukshetra series of annual exercises between the two countries.
The exercise involves the SAF soldiers from the 41st Battalion, Singapore Armoured Regiment and Headquarters, 4th Singapore Armoured Brigade. As part of the exercise, the two armies conducted joint planning and training, and executed integrated manoeuvres and live-firing. For the first time, the SAF has deployed its BIONIX I Infantry Fighting Vehicle and the BRONCO All-Terrain Tracked Carrier for this exercise series.
Exercise Bold Kurukshetra underscores the warm defence relationship between Singapore and India. Besides exercising together, the SAF and the Indian Armed Forces interact regularly through visits, courses, seminars and other professional exchanges.Photos
[url]http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_events/nr/2008/may/02may08_nr/03apr08_photos.html[/url]
Video
[url]http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_events/nr/2008/may/02may08_nr/02may08_newsvideo.html[/url]
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