Oct 12, 2010

Strategic Capability in Limbo

Dr V.K. Saraswat, Director General of the DRDO confirmed that the Agni-V Intermediate Range Missile will be test fired in 2011. "Agni-V should be ready to be test-fired anytime next year. It is an intermediate-range ballistic missile. Over the past 15 years, the successful launches of the Prithvi, Agni and BrahMos missiles have proved that the country's missile programme has reached a mature level," he said. However user trial of nuclear capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile failed as the missile could not take off from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off the Orissa coast due to a technical problem.

Meanwhile reports indicate that India's Strategic Forces Command (SFC) has submitted a proposal to the Defence Ministry for setting up two dedicated squadrons of fighter aircraft which at present are with the Indian Air Force for delivering nuclear weapons under its control. SFC operates under the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) to manage the strategic forces including nuclear assets.

India however successfully test-fired the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile, which has a range of 290 kms, from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off the Orissa coast on 5 September.  “The launch met all mission requirements. It was a 100% fantastic launch,” director of the test range S P Dash was quoted by a news agency. The BrahMos Block-II variant has been developed to take out a small target, with a low radar cross-section, in a multi-target environment. A regiment of the BrahMos-I variant, consisting of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12x12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command posts, among other equipment, is already operational in the Army. The Navy has begun inducting the first version of BrahMos missile system in all its frontline war ships since 2005.  The Army is set to induct two more regiments of the BrahMos Block-II land-attack cruise missiles (LACM) designed as “precision strike weapons.”

OCT 2010

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