Missiles India

Ballistic Missiles

• Launched from land or sea; follows a trajectory with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target
• Usually carry a nuclear warhead and are very heavy & have much larger range
• Only guided during relatively brief periods of flight, and most of its trajectory is unpowered and governed by gravity (and air resistance if in the atmosphere

• Long range intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched at a steep,sub-orbital flight trajectory and spend most of their flight out of the atmosphere
• Shorter range ballistic missiles stay within theEarth’s atmosphere

• Examples include Agni Missiles, Prithvi Missiles, Akash, Trishul, Maitri, Dhanush, Sagarika, K4, K5

 

Cruise missiles

• Can also be launched from air along with land and sea
• Have their own engines and wings to strike the target
• Can be sub-sonic (.8 mach), supersonic (3 mach) or hypersonic (5 mach)
• Highly accurate & fly within Earth’s atmosphere
• usually carry conventional warheads although some cruise missiles can also be equipped with nuclear warheads
• Examples include Brahmos Missiles, Nirbhay Missile

 

In both cases viz. Ballistic Missiles & Cruise Missiles are guided. That is, the flight path is pre-determined and very small alterations in flight are possible, if at all.

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Ballistic Missiles India

Agni Missiles

• Ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads
• Classified into three types viz. Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBM), Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM) and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)

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Name	Type	Range (Km)	Status	Type
Agni I	MRBM	700-1200	Deployed	Surface to surface
Agni II	IRBM	2000-2500	Deployed	Surface to surface
Agni III	IRBM	3000-5000	Deployed	Surface to surface
Agni IV	IRBM	2500-3700	Deployed	Surface to surface
Agni V	ICBM	5000-8000	Tested	Surface to surface
Agni VI	ICBM	10000-12000	Under Development	Surface to surface

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• Agni-I,Agni-II and Agni-III missiles were developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program
• Agni IV + Agni V – high accuracy Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and the most modern and accurate Micro Navigation System (MINS)

 

Prithvi Missiles

• Surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM)

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Name	Range (Km)
Prithvi I	150
Prithvi II	150-350
Prithvi III	350-650

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• Dhanush is the naval variant of Prithvi Missiles – Sea to Surface
• Prithvi-II – 1st missile developed by DRDO under IGMDP

 

Prahaar

• A solid-fuelled Surface-to-surface Missile with range of 150 km
• Equipped with omnidirectional warheads and could be used for striking both tactical and strategic targets

 

India Sea Based Nuclear Armed Ballistic Missiles : Surface to Surface

• Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM)

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Name	Range (Km)
Dhanush	350
Sagarika (K15)	700
K4	3500
K5	6000

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Surface to Air Missiles of India

Name	Feature	Range
Akash	surface-to-air	30 km
Trishul	surface-to-air	12 km
Maitri	surface-to-air	15 km

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Akash Air Defence missile system 

• Medium range Surface to air missile viz. approx. 35 km
• Can employ multiple air targets while operating in fully autonomous mode
• Can be launched from static or mobile platforms
• Can carry conventional and nuclear warheads
• Can operate in all weather conditions.
• Developed under the integrated guided-missile development programme by ISRO

 

LRSAM – India-Israel joint venture missile

• Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) – called Barak 8 missile in Israel
• can take down an incoming missile as close as 500 meters away from the ship

 

Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP)

• Prithvi Missiles – Short range surface-to-surface missile + Naval variant (Dhanush)
• Trishul Missiles – Short range low-level surface-to-air missile
• Akash Missiles – Medium range surface-to-air missile
• Nag Missiles – Third-generation anti-tank missile
• Agni Missiles – Only Agni 1, 2 & 3

 

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Anti Tank Missile India

Nag Missile

• “Fire-and-forget” anti-tank missile
• An all-weather missile with a range of 3 to 7 km
• Uses Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) guidance with day and night capability
• Can be mounted on an infantry vehicle

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A variant of NAG Missile to be launched from Helicopter is being developed under the Project named HELINA (HELIcopter launched NAg)

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Cruise Missiles India

Brahmos Missiles

• can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land (Cruise Missiles)
• Presently world’s fastest cruise missile in operation (Brahmos)

 

• Brahmos – Mach 2.8 Supersonic Cruise Missile developed in collaboration with Russia – 300 km
• Brahmos 11– Mach 7 Hypersonic Cruise Missile in development collaboration with Russia

 

Nirbhay

• 1^st long range subsonic cruise missile
• Can be launched from land, sea and air(Cruise missile)
• a ring laser gyroscope for high-accuracy navigation and a radio altimeter for the height determination
• Strike range – 1000 km
• From Integrated Test Range at Wheeler island, Chandipur, Orissa, by SFC monitored by DRDO

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Air to Air Missile India

Astra Missile – India’s 1^st Air to Air (BVR)

• Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile; smallest DRDO developed missile (3.8m)
• capable of engaging targets at varying range and altitudes allowing for engagement of both short-range targets (up to 20 km) and long-range targets (up to 80 km) using alternative propulsion modes

 

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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Panchi

• Wheeled version of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Nishant capable of taking-off and landing using small airstrips
• Have all the surveillance capabilities of UAV Nishant + longer endurance as it does not have to carry the air bags and parachute system as in the case of UAV Nishant

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Nishant UAV

• a multi-mission UAV with Day/Night operational capability, inducted in Army
• designed for battlefield surveillance, target tracking & localization, and artillery fire correction
• controlled from a user friendly Ground Control Station + image processing system to analyze transmitted images from UAV

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India’s Cold start Doctrine

• Though officially denied, it’s an offensive doctrine by the Indian strategic establishment
• Aimed at reducing mobilization time and improved network-centric warfare capabilities

 

Goal

• To establish the capacity to launch a retaliatory conventional strike against Pakistan that would inflict significant harm on the Pakistan Army before the international community could intercede
• At the same time, pursue narrow enough aims to deny Islamabad a justification to escalate the clash to the nuclear level

 

Offensive operations could begin within 48 hours after orders have been issued. Such a limited response time would enable Indian forces to surprise their Pakistani counterparts.