India takes a small strategic step

By Col R Hariharan

(December 15, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) India took a small strategic step when it successfully launched Dhanush the 350 km range ship based anti-surface missile from INS Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday, December 14. This should come as some consolation after the failure of its nuclear-capable IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) Agni-III in May and November 2009 test firings. Navy carried out the test firing as part of a user training exercise.

The media quoted official sources of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) to claim the missile successfully hit the target with pin-point accuracy after covering 350 km. Two naval ships anchored near the target tracked the splash of the missile which followed a pre-designated trajectory. . The media also said radar systems of the Integrated Test Range (ITR), located along the Orissa coast, monitored the missile's entire trajectory. The missile took eight minutes and 40 seconds to hit the target.

Dhanush is the naval version of Prithvi. The single-stage 10-metre long liquid propellent missile weighs six tones and carries 500 kg warhead.

In March 2009, India had for the third time successfully tested the ballistic missile defence shield being developed by the DRDO. A ballistic missile defence system is highly automated and comprises of radars that can detect missiles in flight, interceptors that can take out the looming threat, and control systems that coordinate the whole operation. In the test in March, the ‘enemy’ missile (fired from a naval ship 150 km from Orissa coast to simulate Pak Ghauri missile) was quickly picked up on radar and the two-stage Prithvi Air Defence missile successfully intercepted and destroyed the intruding warhead.

Defence research scientists have also been successful in developing Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket system and BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile for the Navy, in collaboration with Russians. While Pinaka has already been introduced in the army, DRDO hopes BrahMos to deliver 240 missiles in the next two years. Although it was developed as an anti-ship missile, DRDO claims it can also be launched from air and land.

However, DRDO's successes do not cover up some of its multiple problems. The most notable of them has been its inability to develop an engine for the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). The Kaveri engine under development for two decades drew bitter criticism as it was underpowered. According to defence columnist Ajai Shukla, in its place, two alternatives were short-listed: the Eurojet EJ200, and the General Electric F-414 engines.

However, the Ministry of Defence appears to have changed its mind and decided to go for co-development. The DRDO’s Gas Turbine and Research Establishment (GTRE), which has a design partnership with French engine-maker, Snecma, has been asked to design a more powerful successor to Kaveri. The Business Standard had quoted Minister of State for Defence, Dr Pallam Raju’s rationale for this decision. He said: “It is important for India to have indigenous capabilities in engine design. And having invested so many man-hours of work into the design of the Kaveri engine, it would be a national waste to fritter away or dilute those capabilities”. (Snecma) is willing to co-develop an engine with us; they are willing to go beyond just transfer of technology. It is a value-added offer that gives us better technology than what we would get from ToT from Eurojet or GE."

But that was in 2008. The DRDO is notorious for its delays and well known for its non-adherence to time schedules. So presumably Tejas continues to be where it was: in the realms of development.

(Col. R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, is associated with the South Asia Analysis Group and the Chennai Centre for China Studies)

-Sri Lanka Guardian