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| Agni - The proud moment for India and importance of defence preparedness | | | NIKHIL GUPTA | 4/22/2012 10:28:05 PM |
| About 600 years back , people from Central Asia came running to India from their not so green land towards green land of India , defeated Afgans and later defeated Rajputs and so started rule in north India . About 250 years back , Britishers came , defeated local powers one by one and set up British rule in India. British captured Shah Zafar , treated him as simple prisoner and pensioned him to Rangoon. Around 1845-49 , British totally defeated Sikhs , crushed their only kingdom and brought whole of Panjab region under their rule . British ruled India either directly through their appointed officials or indirectly through their British Residents who controlled most of the foreign affairs , war and peace decisions etc. British kept large number of little kings and zamindars who were controlled by top British officials. It is well known that India attained freedom only after lots of sacrifices of large number of people of India belonging to all sections of society . The contributions of freedom warriors like SURYA SEN and his company of youngesters of age group 15 to 20 years comprising such great warriors like ANANDA GUPTA , DEBA GUPTA , TEGRA BAL etc can never be forgotten .
India should not forget that the Indian independence was achieved after so much bloodshed and sacrifices and it is the duty of us all Indians to safeguard the Indian independence at all costs . The defence preparedness of India needs to be upgraded by procurement of more and more modern weapons . India should move forward in nuclear field and missile technology field . The development of THERMONUCLEAR warhead is still a distant dream . The missile technology field is promising for young Indian scientists and I had an opportunity to talk to an eminent person who told me some basics about missile technology and even about the interception of missiles using the supercomputers . The successful missile interception demonstration by Indian scientists last year was superb . The indigenous interceptor 'Ballistic Missile Defence System' was fired from Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district in march , 2011 . It successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile fired from the launch complex III of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur on sea in Balasore district, about 70 km away from Wheeler Island across the sea. The interceptor was fired five minutes after the target missile was fired. It was a fantastic mission. It successfully hit the target. The interceptor intercepted the ballistic missile and blasted it into pieces .The recent perfect launch of AGNI V ICBM with over 5000 km range is a big leap forward for Indian defence preparedness. The ballistic missiles provide force multiplication to Indian defence and in case of China , the AGNI V will prove to be a game changer with MAD ( MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION ) concept fully exposed to any Chineese misadventure.
Agni V, India's most powerful long-range ballistic missile, has lived up to the hopes of its creators at the Defence Research & Development Organisation. In its maiden flight on Thursday morning, the missile demonstrated that it could accurately lob a dummy warhead weighing slightly over one tonne to a distance of over 5,000 km. India already has nuclear-capable missiles that can reach all of Pakistan and Agni V is clearly intended to provide a similar deterrent capability with respect to China. More test flights will be necessary before the missile is inducted into the country's strategic arsenal. According to top experts the AGNI V missile is a game-changer with respect to China . It can perform multiple roles as it can carry multiple warheads and can provide anti-satellite capability . In any future high technology warfare , shooting down enemy satelites is an important factor as this can reduce the enemy's capabilities in communications and logistics. AGNI V is the first Indian missile that can potentially be equipped with multiple warheads (known as Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles or MIRV) . This multiple warhead carrying capability is the most dangerous capability that can change the game of warfare . Its not known whether Chinnese missiles are equipped with multiple warheads or not . China possesses formidable nuclear-armed missiles and is in the process of replacing its liquid-fuelled ballistic missiles with more modern solid propellant ones. From bases in Qinghai and Yunnan provinces, these missiles can reach all of India. In addition, in 2004, China launched the first of its second-generation Type 094 Jin-class nuclear-powered submarines that will carry JL-2 solid-propellant ballistic missiles.
For the development of AGNI V missile three key laboratories forming Defence Research and Development Organisation's missile complex worked in tandem and designed most parts indigenously . These three labs are " The Research Centre Imarat (RCI) " , " Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) " and the " Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) " . These are the three laboratories which contributed immensely to the success of Agni V catapulting India into an elite club of nations possessing the technology to develop Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Sh. R.K. GUPTA was the Project Director for Agni-V missile . The RCI designed and developed the entire avionics comprising navigation, guidance, control, telemetry and on-board computer, the ASL was responsible for the propulsion systems which include the composite rocket motor casings for the second and third stages of the missiles, the heat shields and integration of the vehicle. The heat shields, made of carbon-carbon composites, protected the re-entry vehicle from scorching temperature of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius when it re-entered the atmosphere at an altitude of 100 km after the three stages were decoupled. The ASL also developed these carbon-carbon composites. The navigation system basically tells the missile about its position, speed and direction, the guidance guides the path it should travel, the control system provides the force to follow that path and telemetry transmits on-board data to ground systems for post-flight analysis. G. Satheesh Reddy, Associate Director, RCI said, "The on-board computer is like heart of the missile, which connects, commands and controls all systems. It solves all guidance equations and executes mission events". He said that for the first time a redundant micro-navigation system was used in Agni-V. It was a highly reliable, miniaturised, rugged and accurate system with fault-tolerant features to withstand any harsh environ-ment.The strength of the three laboratories lay in the integrated manner in which they worked, added Mr. Reddy. I salute the intelligent scientists of these three defence labs for designing superb and perfect missile launch capability that assures that India stands up to Chinese threat . Pakistan is a small fly as compared to India because it doesn't have its own capability in any of defence field but mainly relies on Chinese for missile and nuclear fields.
The launch mission of AGNI V was so perfect that the missile's re-entry vehicle hit the waters of the Indian Ocean in the targeted area with an accuracy of a few metres and the entire mission was monitored by three ships stationed down range, telemetry and radars along the coast. The data indicated that the mission objectives were fully met. The fireball created by the explosion of the dummy payload was recorded by cameras onboard the ships . As per the defence experts ,Agni-V is a versatile missile as in terms of deterrence, the missile would be provide sufficient confidence to India in any future warfare . The three-stage missile had several new technologies that contributed to the mission's success. These included rocket motor casings made up of carbon composites, the motors contoured to suit the missile's shape, high-performance navigation, guidance and control systems and rail/road mobile launcher. All the sub-systems fabricated by the DRDO were fully validated. With Agni-V, India can reach all targets of interest from deep inside India. The same system allows us to reach the farthest corners where you want to exert your influence while providing sufficient protection for yourself." Since it could be launched from a road mobile launcher and a canister, it was difficult to intercept the missile and defeat it while being launched. The on-board computer of the missile estimatd the trajectory every few milliseconds and make the missile system follow that path giving it accuracy of few meters which is superb for knocking down any enemy installation within range of 5000 plus kilometers .
The defence preparedness of India cannot be complete without putting a comprehensive missile defence theatre in place . All developed nations including China have a missile defence shield . Patriot missiles of USA played a good role in shooting down Scud missiles of IRAQ during Allied versus Iraq war . In Asia , the USA has stationed a large number of intercepting missiles in Japan and South Korea and perhaps the Tokyo and Seoul are the best defended capitals in Asia . India should develop a comprehensive shield against enemy missile launch . One cannot forget the SDI of USA launched in 1980's that gave edge to USA over the the Soviet Union . The strategic defence Initiative ( SDI ) was designed by USA to shoot down any incoming enemy missile from the space itself . No one knows whether this program of USA was a success or not but clearly it gave a edge to USA in STRAT I and START II negotiations with Soviet Union and now Russia . On the same lines India should launch her own SDI with a good range of intercepting missiles and a comprehensive shield for missile defense. This article is devoted to intelligent and merit oriented Indian scientists and engineers in missile design field such as Sh. R. K GUPTA ,Project Director for AGNI V missile , Mr. Avinash Chander , Programme Director , Sh. V.G. Sekaran , Director of ASL , G. Satheesh Reddy, Associate Director, Research Centre Imarat and all the scientists associated with AGNI V mission . The content has no bearing on any person or any organisation and the author is guided by the motto " THE ROYALE GUPTA WARRIORS NEVER FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES BUT FIGHT FOR A BIGGER CAUSE ". Vande Matram and Jai Hind.
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