'Working On Interceptor Against 5,000-km Range Enemy Missile': DRDO Chief

With Defence Minister AK Antony in China, the first by a Defence Minister in seven years, new facts about the direction India's nuclear missile programme is taking could send out an unprecedented message. In details revealed for the first time in an exclusive interview to me for Headlines Today, the new chief of the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) Dr Avinash Chander has revealed that one of his key mandates as the head of the country's military research comple

x, is to drastically reduce the time India will take for a potential nuclear counter-strike.

Unlike China, India has been typically timid about its strategic programmes. The DRDO chief's revelations make for a rare, bold message about the goings on within the country's most advanced weapons laboratories.

"In the second strike capability, the most important thing is how fast we can react. We are working on cannisterised systems that can launch from anywhere at anytime," said Dr Chander. "We are making much more agile, fast-reacting, stable missiles so response can be within minutes." India has a no first use policy for nuclear weapons, and its current response time for a retaliatory strike is classified. The DRDO chief's task is to whittle it down by a substantial degree to provide the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) with a literally 'anywhere-anytime' ability.

Dr Chander, formerly director with the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) in Hyderabad and renowned as the spearhead of the Agni family of missiles, was made chief of the DRDO last month.

India's current land-based nuclear weapon delivery systems include the 1,250-km range Agni-I, 2,000-km range Agni-II and 3,500-km range Agni-III. The DRDO chief has expressed confidence that 2 of India's two most ambitious nuclear missiles under test, the 4,000-km range Agni-IV and 6,000+ km range Agni-V, will both be inducted into the strategic arsenal within two years.

"We'll induct the Agni IV and V inducted in the next two years. It's the first time we will be inducting strategic missiles with such long ranges together. Agni III, IV and V are going to be the thrust areas. They give us the reach which we need, and are our highest priority now. Within two years we have to make sure that it happens," said Dr Chander.

Currently, the ASL is steeped in researching futuristic missile technologies. "In the future, the country will require much more precise warheads which are able to counter anti-ballistic missile defences. A manoeuvring warhead is going to be a key challenge. That's the next strategic capability which will become essential. That in turn will be followed by multiple warheads, with decoys, warheads, and other combination," said Dr Chander.

Asked about whether India needed an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), with ranges in excess of 10,000-km like China's DF-31 and other in-development weapons, Dr Chander said his missile laboratories could develop and deploy an ICBM in as little as three-five years. "As we see today, we don't find the need for ranges more than 5,000-6,000 km. The technology building blocks required to build a longer range missile already exist. We are in a position to activate any such system at very short notice," said Dr Chander.

Asked about how India's missile programme squared off against China's, he said, "Comparisons are odious, always difficult, and many times taken out of context. If you see at the capability level, our missiles, radars are comparable with the Chinese and other friends around us."

On India's ballistic missile defence (BMD) system, Dr Chander said, "Ballistic missile defence capabilities of our adversaries will also grow in the years to come. As far as our BMD is concerned, we are now poised for take-off. We've done a lot of tests, need to do perhaps a few more tests. With that, we will be ready to intercept missiles upto a range of 2,000km. That system we will be able to start deploying. At the same time, our effort to develop a system to intercept missiles with a range of 5,000km is underway. Testing of those missiles is one of the limitations we have by virtue of the geometry of the country. We are working on the development of new ranges, so we can fire for a longer distance."

Livefirst

Agni-V to be tested twice this year, could be inducted by 2015

NEW DELHI: India's most formidable strategic missile, the over 5,000-km Agni-V, will be tested twice before this year ends to ensure it is ready for full-scale induction in the armed forces towards end-2015.

Interestingly, the latter of the two tests will see the 50-tonne Agni-V being fired from a hermetically-sealed canister mounted on a launcher truck. A canister-launch system will give the forces the requisite operational flexibility to swiftly transport the ballistic missile and launch it from a place of their choosing. Consequently, the highly road-mobile Agni-V will be able to hit even the northernmost part of China if fired from close to the Line of Actual Control.

"We are getting ready for two more tests of the three-stage Agni-V this year, which will include the canister-launch trial. Our aim is to make the missile ready for induction in two years," said new DRDO chief Avinash Chander, talking exclusively to TOI.

Similar plans are underway to make the two-stage Agni-IV, with a 3,500-km strike range, ready for induction by end-2014. The armed forces have already inducted the Pakistan-specific Agni-I (700-km) and Agni-II (over 2,000-km) as well as the 3,000-km Agni-III.

The Agni-IV and Agni-V missiles, however, are in a different class with "much higher accuracy and kill efficiencies" to give teeth to the minimum credible deterrence posture against China. With a massive nuclear arsenal and missiles like the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A capable of hitting any Indian city, Beijing is leagues ahead of New Delhi.

DRDO, however, remains unfazed. Work is in progress to make the solid-fuelled Agni-IV and Agni-V, the latter virtually an intercontinental ballistic missile, even more lethal.

"After these two missiles are inducted, the two major focus areas will be maneuvering warheads or re-entry vehicles to defeat enemy ballistic missile defence systems and MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles)," Chander said.

An MIRV payload implies a single missile carrying several nuclear warheads, each programmed to hit different targets. "But there is no Agni-VI programme as of now. We are working on enabling technologies and capabilities... we will come to the Agni-VI programme, if required, later," he said.

But is DRDO being too optimistic about the Agni-IV and Agni-V induction schedules, given that both have been tested only once till now? "No, we require just six to seven trials. We are no longer in the age when a large number of trials are required," said Chander, a missile scientist who was the overall head of the expansive Agni programme earlier.

"These surface-to-surface missiles have well-defined (parabolic) trajectories, unlike say air-to-air missiles. We conduct thousands of tests through modeling and simulation in our labs under different conditions. The actual flight trials are to validate what is predicted in simulation tests, match the algorithms," he added.

Times of India

BrahMos can’t be intercepted in next 20 years

New Delhi: BrahMos, the world's only supersonic cruise missile and a symbol of the India's military prowess has been billed to be "uninterceptable" for the "next 20 years", by none other than the "father of BrahMos" himself.

"The equivalent of BrahMos is yet to built. And, in the next 20 years, it cannot be intercepted by an enemy," says A Sivathanu Pillai, scientist, and CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace sharing the vision for the future trajectory of growth for the iconic missile technology developed jointly by India and Russia.

Pillai, also Chief Controller (R and D), DRDO and hailed largely as the "father of BrahMos" mentions "missile technology" as one of the 10 key and "unique leap-frog technologies" for building a securer and greater future of India, "driven by youth power" in a new book which he has co-authored with the former President APJ Kalam.

Titled "Thoughts for Change: We can Do It", by two renowned scientific minds aims to be a clarion call to the youth of India to "reclaim its ancient scientific wisdom" even as it exhorts them to embrace and work towards building a future where "multiple technologies will intersect and interoperate".

"We take pride in the fact that BrahMos, world's only supersonic cruise missile, a symbol of Indo-Russian co- operation, where India provided the guidance, avionics, software and airframe components, etc, has been successfully delivered to both the Indian Navy and the Indian Army and the aerial version for the Indian Air Force too shall be ready in few years time," Pillai told a news agency in an interview.

BrahMos, developed jointly in a strategic partnership between Indian DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Russian NPO Mashinostroyeniya, is a stealth cruise missile with a range of 290 km and travels at a speed of Mach 2.8 to 3.

The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

Among other technologies that the authors believe will lay the roadmap for the future of war theatres and health care, etc, in India is the convergence of Information, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology (nano-info-bio).

Other technologies in the list include ? Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Sciences; Sensor Technology; Materials Technology; High Energetics; Fusion Technology; Space Technology; Hypersonics and Green Technology.

"Nano-info-bio and their convergence will redefine the future as we know it, whether in changing the dynamics of the war theatre where information technology will be coupled with the existing biotechnology and the new and emerging field of nanotechnology or health care. A simple looking bird flying in the air could be a surveillance and reconnaissance device.

"As per health, drug delivery through nano tech has been tried on Parkinson's Syndrome and Epilepsy patients outside India and has shown to stop their symptoms like shaking of limbs and has even allowed them to walk, not possible otherwise. And, it is definitely a future India is looking to, given its huge youth bank," says Pillai.

Divided into five sections, the book in fact lays a special emphasis on the youth power, especially in the final section titled 'Future India' where it asks the young India to "think big" and to "assume the leadership role" in building a "knowledge society" for the world.

"India has currently 580 million youth population. And, every one among the youth of India must prepare himself or herself to do remarkable work, which will create a place for him or her in the history of the world. History is not written for cowards and one who thinks small," he said.

Fending off worries that the Indian youth has been diverted by a current phase of commercialism, the 'father of BrahMos' urges them to remain positive and "believe in the power of India".

"This current phase of commercialism luring the youth is only a temporary phase. After ten years, you will see, the youth of India will change. And, I and Mr Kalam, himself a popular force among the youth of the country, we both believe that the future of India is great. And, we have to be a positive force and not a negative one, and tackle the problems of the nation," he says.

Commenting on the lack of research culture in Indian universities and organisations, Pillai emphasised the need for government's greater attention and allocation of resources towards building a "research-based paradigm" in educational and research institutions.

"Government is spending 1.7 crore to make one IIT graduate. And, after graduation, the best brains go for either corporate jobs or to US universities, among others. And, then that country becomes a great country.

They leave because they don't have research opportunities back home and that's why we need to focus more on research - based paradigm. Because, when science grows, country grows," he said.

The book has been brought out by Pentagon Press and also contains illustrations accompanying the text.

PTI

Zee News

India to have shield from missiles of 5,000 km range

India's missile defence system is set to get a big boost as it is developing capability to intercept enemy missiles fired from a distance of up to 5,000km, in effect tackling any possible threat from countries such as China.

--> Indian missile defence shield ready

The capability is being developed by DRDO as part of the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, whose first phase is ready for deployment possibly in Delhi.

Development of the first phase of the BMD programme has been completed, DRDO chief Avinash Chander told PTI in an interview.

Under this, the BMD shield can tackle enemy missiles fired at from ranges up to 2,000 km.

Taking this forward, the DRDO is enhancing the capability of BMD in phase-II to deal with threat from missiles of longer range of up to 5,000 km.

"We are planning to soon carry out the first trial of the phase-II of the programme under which we will test our capability to destroy an incoming ballistic missile fired at us from 5,000 km range," said Chander, who took over charge earlier this month.

"Such a capability meets our immediate threat perception," he said when asked if it would cover the threat of such missiles being fired from countries such as China.

Under the phase II of the programme, all the components of such a missile shield including the radar and interceptor missiles would be new and will have extended ranges, the DRDO chief said.

"The phase II missiles would be totally different from phase-I. In this programme, you need to travel more and intercept further away," Chander said.

While giving details of the programme, he said the phase-I of the shield is ready for deployment.

Asked which city would be the first to be protected by the missile shield, he said, "The first choice for such a deployment would be the capital, New Delhi, as it is the heart of the country."

India Express