Sep 12, 2010

India’s Missile Development Programmes

            Status of missile development programmes, currently ongoing in India as indicated by the Ministry of Defence to the Parliament are as follows;-

Nag - It is a 3rd Generation Anti-Tank Missile having ‘top attack’ and ‘fire and forget’ capability with a range of 4 km. Its validation trial based on User Trial feedback has been completed successfully. Missile system is ready to enter production /induction phase.

 HELINA - It is the Helicopter Version of 3rd Generation Anti-Tank Guided Missile with a range of more than 7 km. Launchers have been cleared for captive carriage trials and handed over to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for carriage trials.

Astra – It is Air-to-Air Missile system for beyond visual range, designated to be a missile for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). Its two guided flight trials from ground launcher have been undertaken during July 2010.

LR-SAM – It is a Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LR-SAM) jointly developed / produced by DRDO and IAI, Israel. Its Ballistic flight trials were undertaken in May 2010.

MR-SAM – It is a Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MR-SAM) jointly developed/produced by DRDO and IAI, Israel. Its preliminary design has been carried out. Pre-tender briefing to all prospective vendors has also been carried out.

Agni Series of Surface-to-Surface Missiles: Agni-I with a range of 700 km and Agni-II with a range of more than 2000 km have been developed and inducted into Services. Agni-III with a range of 3000 km is ready for induction into Services.

BrahMos – it is a Supersonic Cruise Missile. It has twin roles against sea and land based targets and can be fitted on multiple platforms including ships, submarines, aircraft and mobile ground platforms. The missile has range of 290 km with 200 kg warhead and a speed of more than 2.8 Mach number. BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile development programme started as a joint venture between India and Russia through an Inter Government Agreement in February 1998. It has already been inducted in Indian Navy and Indian Army. The Air Version of the missile is under development. [Based on MOD India Press Release].

BrahMos For Exports.  The Inter-Governmental Agreement signed by Governments of India and Russia, while forming the Joint Venture (JV) for developing supersonic cruise missile, stipulates that the missile will be inducted in the Armed Forces of India and Russia and also will be exported to friendly countries. Therefore, the Government of India in consultation with Government of Russia will export Brahmos cruise missile to friendly countries taking into account the security needs of the both countries.

            The Brahmos joint venture has participated in many International Exhibitions and some countries have shown interest to buy. But, no decision has been taken by the Government regarding the countries to whom the missile can be sold. Presently, the Brahmos missiles are being produced for meeting the requirements for Indian Army, Navy and Air Force on priority. Export will start only after meeting minimum requirements of India. [MOD India Press Release].

            With the Defence ministry now claiming that the 2000 km range Agni is ready for operational deployment this will provide a number of options for India for enhancing deterrence particularly vis a vis China as the present missile systems with only 700 km range Agni 1 does not provide enough leverage to the country which is dependent on long range strike aircraft only. While the Agni II had been undergoing a number of trials some of these had not been successful thus there was a long delay in operationalisation of capacities for deterrence against China in particular. With some reports indicating that Indian nuclear stockpile was lower than that of Pakistan and also that number of warheads was also lower, there were growing concerns. However numbers and quantity of stockpile does not matter as much but asymmetry is always seen as vulnerability.

SEP 2010