India's 'nuke' cruise missile test fails
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - This is one missile test failure that India could have done
without, given the context of aggressive India-Pakistan posturing in the wake
of November's terror attack on Mumbai.
India's efforts this week to induct the radar-evading BrahMos supersonic cruise
missile as a "precision strike weapon" failed, though initially declared as a
success by the Defense Ministry.
Official sources have told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity that
the latest test of the BrahMos was carried out under a new guidance system
configured to carry a nuclear
warhead instead of a conventional one, which is perhaps the likely cause for
the test parameters not being met.
That there was a problem was partially confirmed by an official release. "There
were minor hitches in the last stage of the BrahMos missile during the current
test at the Pokhran ranges of Rajasthan," BrahMos Aerospace Corporation's
director Dr Sivathanu Pillai said. "The missile performance was absolutely
normal until the last phase, but the missile missed the target, though it
maintained the direction."
All BrahMos tests until now have been designed to deliver conventional
warheads. The BrahMos has been developed in collaboration with long-time
defense partner Russia, a relationship that dates to the Cold War.
Although over 20 successful tests of the BrahMos - which can travel at a speed
of Mach 2.8 - have already been conducted by India, it does seem that the
attempts to add nuclear teeth, control and precision capabilities to the
missile have gone awry for now.
"The complicated mission called for an advanced algorithm and intelligence
embedded in the missile. The problem was in the software, not hardware. We are
now revalidating the new software through extensive simulations. We will test
the missile again within a month," Pillai said.
The ground-hugging BrahMos, named after the Indian river Brahmputra and the
Russian river Moscow, with a 290-kilometer strike range, is similar to the
United State's Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are widely used in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The eight-meter missile weighs nearly three tonnes and can be
launched from land, ships, submarines or aircraft.
American forces used almost 1,000 such missiles when they first entered Iraq in
2003. An inventory of more than 100,000 such missiles is estimated to already
exist around the world.
The cruise missiles supplement the arsenal of attack ballistic missiles that
India possesses. These include the short-range Prithvi and the medium- and
long-range Agni-I and Agni-II, which can be nuclear-fitted. Unlike ballistic
missiles, cruise missiles do not leave the atmosphere and therefore are more
difficult to be tracked by radar.
So far, India has inducted the warship version of the BrahMos and the army has
already placed an order for two regiments of the surface-to-surface version.
All the tests of the BrahMos naval version, both anti-ship and land-attack
ones, have been successful. BrahMos has been fired successfully from a vertical
launcher that allows for integration on submarines, which adds considerable
stealth value to the weapon.
India and Russia have begun some work on a "hypersonic" BrahMos-2 missile
capable of Mach 5-7 speed, while two Indian Sukhoi-30MKI fighters are being
retro-fitted with BrahMos' air-launched version.
South Asia arms race
The most recent advanced BrahMos test lends credence to the fact that South
Asian neighbors India and Pakistan will look to considerably enhance and refine
their military capabilities in the near future, with an arms race pretty much
in the offing.
For example, following the Mumbai terror attacks in which nearly 200 people
died at the hands of Pakistan-linked militants, there has been considerable
acceleration in India-US efforts to jointly build a ballistic missile defense
system.
India's defense purchases are expected to be in the range of US$50 billion over
the next five years, even as the country has embarked on a massive defense
modernization exercise that covers the army, air force and the navy.
New Delhi has already said that another BrahMos test under similar land-attack
conditions will be conducted within a month, though officially it has not
admitted to the nuclear component of the test.
Pakistan, with the help of China, has been inducting a stockpile of
nuclear-capable Babur land-attack cruise missiles with a strike range of over
500 kilometers, which has caused obvious concern in India.
India's military capabilities are developed by the government-controlled
Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which works in close
coordination with space and nuclear power institutions, with similar
technologies for satellite launch vehicles and ballistic missiles.
Most observers agree that the DRDO's performance record has not been up to the
mark and there is need to incorporate foreign technology and assistance.
Some observers say that India could do better by dealing with countries such as
the US, Israel and France as these countries possess state-of-the-art military
technologies, rather than sticking with Russia, whose advanced military
capabilities are now suspect.
Washington, as New Delhi's strategic ally in the region, has been looking to
supply a quarter of India's military hardware over the next decade.
Presently, the US lags behind Russia, Israel and France in supplying military
hardware and software to India. While Russia clocks sales about US$1.5 billion
to India every year, Israel notches annual sales of about $1 billion.
All these aspects become important as Pakistan's military arsenal has been
developed either from the US or China, both countries having made rapid inroads
in this arena.
India's attempts to procure a nuclear submarine this year received a big
setback this week when Russia "indefinitely" postponed delivery of the Akula-II
class Nerpa nuclear submarine, saying that its sea trials were incomplete.
"The pre-delivery trials have been postponed by the Amur shipyard as it has no
trial crew and is running short of cash,'' the Far Eastern edition of the
Kommersant daily newspaper reported.
According to the paper, the shipyard had yet to finalize a new trial team for
this class of submarine after the November 8 accident last year in which 20
members were killed during trials in the Sea of Japan.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached
at sidsri@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
