 Keeping Alive the legacy of having most accurate Missiles made by the Missile Man Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. India has now made missiles that are more capable than the previous ones. These missiles have been designed keeping in mind the terrain at India's national borders, road connectivity, weather and Cold Start Military doctrine. For the sake of cold start it is very critical that Indians should be able to deploy missiles within minimum time. The missiles are.................. 1 Shaurya. 2 Prahaar. 3 Nirbhay. 4 BrahMos ll. 1 Shaurya. Shaurya is a hybrid missile. It is a mix of cruise missile and ballistic missile. There are many missiles made on this concept like the Russian Yu 71 and the Boeing X 51. It is hypersonic as its terminal velocity is a combined effect of Gravity and Ramjets. ~Construction Shaurya is a two stage missile like any normal cruise missile. It is stored in canisters which not just makes it easier to store for longer period without maintenance but also makes it less detectable to spying satellites. It also makes it's deployment easy. Only one missile is carried in one vehicle , this is done keeping in mind that the Truck carrying the missile must be able to reach the battlefield quickly. The missile has six motors in total. Many times it is said to have been designed specifically to be launched from submarines. Many people also believe it to be land version of K 15 missile. ~ Launch Profile. Shaurya is launched vertically. It is ejected from it's canisters with the help of a gas generator and then It's solid boosters hurl it upwards up to almost 50 km. in sky. Then it's second stage begins. It flies like a hypersonic missile flying almost parallel to ground. It should be noted that Shaurya is a hypersonic missile and its speed is around Mach 7.5. During its last leg of deployment of warhead Shaurya rapidly decrease its altitude and spins around itself making it almost impossible for any SAM to intercept it. ~Role Of course it is a tactical missile meant to be used in battlefield but an optional nuclear warhead and a maximum range of 1900 kms make it deployable at strategic situations. Shaurya is a hypersonic missile and it is to be used by army to take out enemy's land assets within a minimum range of 750 km. After the Chinese deployment of HQ9 SAMs, Construction of Weapon Storage/Depots , a new railway line and around 27 runways all near to Indian borders it became necessary for India to respond with equal force. Meanwhile a new breakthrough Pakistani Missile Nasr became operational which claimed to have 'killed Cold Start Doctrine' surfaced. Shaurya is believed to have developed to counterbalance the Nasr threat. As of Sept. 2011 the missile has entered production. Their are Fixed land Silos planned to setup launchers for this missile. 2 Prahaar. Prahaar in Hindi means 'Attack' and just like it's name. Prahaar is meant to do prahaar on India's enemies. It was thought to be replacement and of Prithvi Missile but it actually complemented Prithvi. The Missile is a quick reaction , all weather ,all terrain, battlefield support highly accurate Missile. ~Construction The Prahaar system is a little bit bulky than Shaurya as the size of Shaurya is big. This system consists of 6 missiles kept in canisters with doors closed. Mounted on a truck. Being a battlefield support missile it may be needed to launched either one after another in multiple directions or just one missile could be launched and others stored for some time. The system can be camouflaged quickly. ~ Launching. Prahaar is a quick reaction missile means an enemy action is neutralised quickly by using this missile. The enemy action could be deployment of troops within our territory or large movement of tanks. The Prahaar can be launched within 3 minutes without any prior preparation. And can reach a maximum range of 150 km. in 250 seconds with accuracy as precise as CEP 10m. DRDO scientists have said that Prahaar can be equipped with omnidirectional warheads and can take out any tactical target with minimum time. Speed of deployment being a critical factor in Cold Start doctrine. The mobile launch platform will carry six missiles, which can have different kind of warheads meant for different targets and can be fired in salvo mode in all directions covering the entire azimuth plane.  The Prahaar can be launched within 3 minutes without any prior preparation. And can reach a maximum range of 150 km. in 250 seconds with accuracy as precise as CEP 10m. ~Role The missile fills the short-range tactical battlefield missile role as required by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force, to take out strategic and tactical targets.The Missile is said to act as a gap filler in the 150 km (93 mi) range, between the Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher and Smerch MBRL in one end and the Prithvi ballistic missiles on the other. ~Export The Export variant of this missile was unvield at ADEX 2016 in Seoul South Korea. The name of the export version is Pragati and is said to be ready for exports as of Nov. 2014. It is cheaper in comparison with similar category missiles such as MGM 140 ATACMS. 3 Nirbhay. When US invaded Iraq. They launched nearly 1000 tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy all the high value assets of Iraqis. Then they sent their Carrier Borne Air Superiority F 18 fighters to neutralise Iraqi air force. All other actions were then just a formality. This example shows how much it is important in modern warfare to have a Cruise missile. Cruise missiles are very accurate and with advancement in technology Cruise missiles can be stealth and of ranges up to 1000 kms. We in India have BrahMos , world's fastest Cruise missiles but it's range is just 290 km. While the Chinese have a better thing as C-J 10 and Pakistan have an Operational Babur Cruise Missile. This is Simply a Serious Situation if we understand the tactical importance of a cruise missile. All these things are an enough reason for India to have an Indegineous Cruise missile with ranges up to 1000 kms. The Solution to this came in the form of Nirbhay. ~Construction Nirbhay is a low cost all weather missile having its surface made of Carbon Composites. It has a solid rocket booster as it's first stage which was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory and a Russian turbofan engine. It is mounted on an all terrain all wheel drive Tata LPTA 5252-12 X-12 Vehicle. It has foldable wings. ~ Operation Nirbhay is launched vertically and the Solid booster helps it to attain a desired height and velocity after which the missile goes Horizontal and wings are deployed. The missile can travel at different altitudes. During tests it has been flown at the altitude of 4800 m and gradually bringing down to 20m. It is said to have designed to fly as low as 10m to avoid detection. It has an inertial guidance system which was a little bit faulty but later corrected and It can carry 24 different types of Warheads including a nuclear one. One unique feature if thus missile , what I like is it said to be capable of loitering. That means it can go round about the target manoeuvre like an aircraft and reengage and can pick out a target. Once Dr. Abdul Kalam while speaking to Shri Sivathanupillai spoke about a cruise missile that can deploy warhead and return back and land in a friendly territory.  Once Dr. Abdul Kalam while speaking to Shri Sivathanupillai spoke about a cruise missile that can deploy warhead and return back and land in a friendly territory. There aren't official details available but seeing the versatile warhead carrying capacity it would be safe to assume that Nirbhay can launch multiple warheads at multiple timings. That means it would launch warhead, manoeuvre around and launch another warhead on an another target. But all this is just fancy until officially confirmed. ~ Role Seeing the images from official DRDO website. It seems that IAF would be more interested in this missile than army. The missile would most likely be employed to do SEAD/DEAD missions against Chinese HQ-4 and HQ-9 SAM systems, that the Chinese have deployed in Tibet. The IAF may use it to take out the weapon storage Depots of PLA, which exist there since 1962. The Army's Tactical requirements would be different. Army would require it neutralise high value assets on Pakistani borders. It may be used for battlefield support to destroy targets precisely. If any invading force gets support from their MLRS or MBRS then to destroy that target Nirbhay will be an ideal weapon.
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AuthorPalash Choudhari Archives
April 2021
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