Translate

Sunday, October 04, 2009

China's missile power

Some of the readers on this blog have seen my negative references to the pace of the Indian missile programme. I have had harsh words to say about the Prithvi and the Agni. Just why I feel the way I do is because of how we continue to delude ourselves, while our adversaries gain strength. Here is a link to a picture gallery of the missiles displayed in the recent parade marking the anniversary of the 60th year of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
This gives you an indication of what a well-rounded missile power is like and what it looks like when it means business. There are intercontinental, medium range nuclear armed missiles, a number of conventional ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, SAMs, shore to ship missiles and multi-barrel rockets.
These missiles are not just for display, they are deployed, ready-to-use systems. I have had on occasion commented on the fact that we usually parade a model of Agni on Republic Day, but the commentator will never actually call it a model, of course. The conventional missiles are all solid-propellant based and compact in contrast to our Prithvi.



Here is a pix of the DF-11 A paraded, this is the M-11 that PRC gave to Pakistan in the early 1990s to counter the Prithvi.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Joshi,

Why you are feeling negative about the Indian missile development and have to reserve "harsh" comments for them? If you have apprised yourself of all latest developments you might have different opinion.

For DF-11/DF-15 => Agni-1/K-15
DF-21/C => Agni 2/future mod
DF-31/A => Agni 3/5 and its variatiants
S300 => Barak 8 and its variatants
There is Brahmos/2

India can also be tagged as well rounded missile power.

manoj joshi said...

Pl note,we have no evidence that any of these missiles-- Agni 1, 2 or 3-- have actually been deployed in the field. They, or their models really, have been paraded on January 26.
Barak 8 is in the future. India is a potential rounded missile power, but to be frank, far from being a missile power of any kind.

Anonymous said...

Joshi Sir,

There are many reports of Agni missile being fielded including news from Pakistan. Barat Kanard in his book,"India's Nuclear Policy" talk about existance of tunnels for the fielded Agni missile. News from Pakistan talk about moving of missiles after the recent Mumbai carnage. Can all these news be wihtout any substance?

It is ironic that you choose China's parade to point out that the paraded Agni missile could be just models as we know Chinese are known for faking even the singers in Beijing Olympics. Atleast we have shown plain models as you say. They displayed the cannistered missile, without any evidence of missile in that.

It is a normal practise to field dummies of the original missiles in addition with original missile to confuse the enemies. In that sense, tt is not a good policy to parade a fielded missile from its deployement. China does that, The link talks about exactly that.

I conclude India is very much a missile power.The way we transformed the AShm Brahmos to LACM is a stark example. This aint the work of Russians.

manoj joshi said...

Please read the press release of the Prithvi tests of October 12 (http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=53133) look at the composition of the witnesses of the test and you can see that it is a development trial rather than an exercise of the armed forces.

Also look at this item in the Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-Prithvi-missiles-tested-back-to-back/articleshow/5117874.cms

"Prithvi was initially supposed to be a 150-km ‘‘tactical’’ battlefield missile with conventional warheads but later its role was expanded to include the ‘‘strategic’’ one as well with nuclear payloads. With the 700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km-plus Agni-II ballistic missiles still to be inducted into the forces, the advanced version of Prithvi is currently the mainstay of SFC. The Army had earlier ordered 75 Prithvi-I and 62 Prithvi-II missiles worth around Rs 1,500 crore, while IAF had gone in for 63 Prithvi-II missiles for Rs 906 crore."

Anonymous said...

Joshi Sir,

Development trials are carried as single test flight. Here two missiles are tested in quick succession. It could be updated system with new INS,rather than the one in development. Hardly it can be termed as developmental.

manoj1951@gmail.com said...

If you are happy having a bulky and outdated missile with a range of 350 kms as part of your strategic forces, you are welcome to it. I for one am not.

Anonymous said...

i think manoj joshi is of the same indian breed which only say negative for india.the missile program of india is very much orginated from the space program while we are competitive bidders in space launch.that is also around 15 continuous flights of pslv why are u so much worried.while pslv is tested with so much accuracy and frequency.don't be afraid.now after five years u will see we will be superior power in missile tech. in the region.