Missile in flight
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| India-Pakistan |
| Agni III missile test fired successfully |
| 2007-04-12 |
| India today successfully test-fired its most powerful nuclear capable intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-III from the Interim Test Range (ITR) here. The indigenously developed two stage, all solid fuel, 16 meter long missile weighing 48 tonnes blasted off at 10.52 am from a fixed platform with the help of an auto launcher in the launch complex-4 of the ITR, located about 72 km from here, defence officials said. The surface to surface missile with a strike range of over 3,000 km and capacity to carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes has the capability to reach even remote Chinese mainland cities of Shanghai and Beijing. India thus joins a select group of nations to field missiles of inter-continental reach. "The entire flight path of 15 minutes duration validated all mission objectives," a defence ministry spokesman said. In the successful Agni III test, the spokesman said Indian scientists had for the first time also validated frontline technology of flex nozzle control system for rocket guidance, specially developed composite propellants and guidance and control with fault tolerant avionics. The sleek missile vertically roared into the clear sky leaving behind a thick column of white and yellow smoke, eyewitness accounts said. Fitted with an on-board computer, the missile went upto a distance of 90 km vertically crossing the atmosphere and re-entered into the earth targetting the pre-determined impact point near Car Nicobar island, officials said. The missile was tracked from ground stations at Dhamra, ITR Balasore, Port Blair and Naval warships in the Indian Ocean. With the successful test-fire, Agni-III is the missile with the longest reach in South Asia and more powerful than any missile in Pakistan's arsenal. However, China has missiles with a longer reach. After three postponements, Agni III was first test fired on July 9, 2006, but the missile failed to meet its mission objectives due to cascaded failure of booster flex nozzle controller. Initially, Indian scientists had planned only three tests, before its induction in 2008. However, DRDO sources said with the failure of maiden test flight, more tests would now be required to prove its robustness. Though DRDO officials are tightlipped, well informed sources said that Agni III costs about 1/6th of similar missiles developed by western countries. Amongst the range of Agni missiles, Agni III is the country's first solid fuel missile that is compact and small enough for easy mobility and can be easily packaged for deployment on variety of surface and sub-surface platforms. The Missile, DRDO scentists say will support a wide range of warhead configurations with total playload mass ranging from 600 kg to 1,800 kg. Due to its high accuracy, the missile is useable in smaller sub-nuclear conflicts, a trend now seen in American long-range missiles. Agni III, DRDO sources said is likely to serve as a base missile for development of underwater launched version of the Agni missiles, miniaturised to be carried in future Indian submarines. DESCRIPTION: Agni-III is a surface-to-surface, two-stage missile. Both stages are powered by solid propellants. RANGE: 4,000 kilometres (2,480 miles), according to defence ministry officials, and capable of striking targets deep inside China. WARHEAD: Agni-III supports a wide range of warheads, conventional and nuclear, with a payload ranging from 600 to 1,800 kilograms (1,320 to 3,960 pounds) including decoys and other anti-ballistic counter-measures. OTHER FEATURES: The missile can be deployed using rail or road mobile launch vehicles is said to have a high degree of accuracy with a medium to large nuclear payload, most likely a 200 to 300 kilotonne warhead. THE AGNI SERIES: The short-range Agni-I was first test-fired in 1989. India last tested the intermediate range Agni-II on August 29, 2004. |
| Posted by:John Frum |
| #16 Shanghai and Beijing are well within striking range. Be still my beating heart. The top opens to allow missile erection. Our Minuteman respond with rigid enthusiasm! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-12 23:36 |
| #15 The Integral Coach Factory, which dates from the days of the Raj, makes the railroad cars that house the rail launcher. These rail mobile missiles are transported in a disguised 27m long railroad wagon. The top opens to allow missile erection. It is ready to fire in less than 15 minutes. Presumably there would be a number of railroad spurs with pre-surveyed launch positions, though with access to the military signals of the Russian GLONASS system, launches could take place anywhere on the massive Indian rail network. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 20:53 |
| #14 They're working on MIRVs for this puppy (which would explain the stated payload of 1.8 metric tons) - three 600 kg RVs each with a 300 kT warhead. Range would be 5500 km for this configuration. Shanghai and Beijing are well within striking range.. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 20:43 |
| #13 The surface to surface missile with a strike range of over 3,000 km and capacity to carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes has the capability to reach even remote Chinese mainland cities of Shanghai and Beijing. Schaweet! Let's start investigating a mutual defense treaty with India. It's high time that China's neighbors began complaining about all the noise from Beijing's incessant sabre rattling. Congratulations, to Asia's largest democracy! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-12 20:27 |
| #12 Missile on erect rail launcher Missile in flight |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 20:06 |
| #11 It seems only the first stage uses the composite case. The second stage uses heavier maraging steel. With the 2m diameter, it would weigh more than a missile of comparable length. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 19:42 |
| #10 Flex nozzle will be useful for SLBM variant... Having a payload capacity of 1.5 tonne, the missile could be launched from both mobile and static platforms. While several new generation technologies, including a flex nozzle, were tried in Thursday's flight, a thermal protection was put in the base region. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 19:28 |
| #9 Depressed trajectory shot.... The 16.7-metre tall surface-to-surface missile lifted off at 10.52 a.m. from the Wheeler Island, off the coast of Orissa, and impacted on a pre-determined target in the ocean after flying for 13 minutes. It reached an altitude of 400 km before re-entering the earth's atmosphere. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 19:27 |
| #8 Yep Titan weight, still, it'll work. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-04-12 19:16 |
| #7 I also noticed that. US Minuteman III ICBMs weigh 32,000 kg while this thing weighs 48,000 kg. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-04-12 18:56 |
| #6 They're still pretending this thing is an IRBM. With a 2m diameter, 16.7m long, composite case and a new high-ISP solid propellant this is an ICBM. If they use the same 200kT warhead as the Agni-2, they have this range Map showing range M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, who described Wednesday's Agni III flight as "a perfect mission," said: "It is a very significant success, particularly when the entire design, planning, material construction, execution and everything associated with the mission was indigenous. Such an effort is vital for the strategic system of our country." The series of successes in the last six months, including that of the Prithvi interceptor missile, the launch of Dhanush, the success of another strategic system and now the Agni III "signify that we are maturing in these difficult technologies," said Mr. Natarajan, who was present at the launch site. Unmindful of the maiden Agni III's failure last year, the DRDO scientists worked hard, analysed the failure from the telemetry of the previous mission, did a lot of reviews and took corrective action which led to this success, added Mr. Natarajan. "Totally indigenous" Prahlada, Chief Controller, R and D, DRDO (Services Interaction), said: "The strength of the mission was that the entire system was totally indigenously developed, the missile's hardware and software, instrumentation, tracking systems and so on." Dr. Prahlada called it "a great flight." It was a totally autonomous missile. Once it was launched, it did not depend on any command or signal from the ground. "It is an intelligent missile," added Dr. Prahlada, who witnessed the flight. "Excellent flight" Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace Limited, praised the total indigenous content of Agni III. "It was an excellent flight. It met all the mission requirements. We have reached a major milestone of realising the IRBM [intermediate range ballistic missile] capability beyond 3,000 km. A number of new technologies, including the re-entry technology for this class of missiles, have been tested. We are proud of the Agni III team," said Dr. Sivathanu Pillai. BrahMos supersonic cruised missile had been inducted into the Navy and it would be soon given to the Army, he said. K. Santhanam, former Chief Adviser to DRDO, commented, "We have chosen indigenous development for our growth. This is a robust way of building our minimum deterrent." Dr. Santhnam, who was former Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, called the Agni III success "maturing of our minimum, credible nuclear deterrent. The success of Agni III is an important milestone on the road to our achieving a credible nuclear deterrent." In May 1998, India conducted five nuclear tests, which gave it confidence in terms of its nuclear weapons. However, a credible delivery system was needed to carry these weapons but an aircraft as a delivery system was vulnerable. Dr. Santhanam said: "So you need missiles, whether they are surface-to-surface missiles or submarine-launched missiles. A submarine-launched missile will be an effective deterrent because its survival capability is high compared to a land system. A missile launched from a silo will be a sitting duck. The vulnerability of a missile launched from land can be reduced by making it mobile, either road or rail mobile. To that extent, Agni III has this dispersal and mobility." Since Agni III's diameter was two metres, its thrust would be high, its range was more and it could carry heavier payloads with a larger volume. "To get into surface-to-surface missiles of long range class, you should have an engine of large diameter, be it powered by solid or liquid propellants. Worldover, the trend is to go for missiles fuelled by solid propellants because they have what is called QRA (quick reaction alert)," said Dr. Santhanam. Those who witnessed the flight included Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju, Vice- Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal B.N. Gokhale and Strategic Forces Commander Vice-Admiral Vijay Shankar. The entire sequence of the Agni III's flight was tracked by radars at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea near Balasore, Orissa; the Outer Wheeler Island, Dhamra on the coast of Orissa; Port Blair and ships stationed at impact points in the Bay of Bengal. "All reported data reception and from this we can conclude that the mission met all its requirements," said DRDO officials. Agni III is a product of the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Hyderabad. ASL is a unit of DRDO. ASL Director Avinash Chander was the Programme Director of this mission. The Project Director was Dr. V.G. Sekharan. The launch took place from the Outer Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal, nine km from a place called Dhamra on the Orissa coast or 70 km, as the crow flies from the ITR Chandipur-on-sea. Agni III weighs 48.3 tonnes and stands 16.7 metres tall. The missile's diameter is two metres. It can carry nuclear warheads weighing one tonne. Its range is about 3,500 km and it can target many parts of China. Former and present DRDO officials lauded the role of R.N. Agarwal, former ASL Director, in the Agni III development. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 18:12 |
| #5 I'm all for China looking nervously in another direction away from Taiwan and Japan. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-04-12 10:44 |
| #4 Hindu god of Fire. That's a hint, I'd say. |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-04-12 10:33 |
| #3 BEIJING - China urged India Thursday to promote peace and stability in Asia after New Delhi tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. “As for the ballistic missile test of India, we have noted the reports,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. “We hope that India, as a country with an important influence in this region, can work to maintain and promote peace and stability in the region. “We hope they can make a positive contribution in this regard and play a positive role.” Qin refused to comment further on the test. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 07:31 |
| #2 RV is all carbon composite body (no metal backup) with carbon-carbon ablative nose tip. The 2 m diameter is compatible with the pontoon launcher DRDO developed for testing of underwater missile launches photo |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 07:15 |
#1  2 stage, 16 m long, 2 m diameter, 44-48 tons, solid fuel (HTPB/AP/AI), composite case, maneuvering re-entry vehicle. Estimated range of 5,500 Km with 1500 kg payload and 12,000 km with 450 kg payload. 250 kT thermonuclear warhead. Should give Beijing something to think about. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-04-12 06:55 |
