Maiden test of Prahaar successful

CHANDIPUR, July 21: The maiden flight test of ‘Prahaar’, a quick-reaction, short range tactical missile with a range of 150 km, was successfully conducted on Thursday morning from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at ChandIpur, Orissa.

The test was carried out at 8.15 a.m. from Launch Complex-III at ITR by missile scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which designed and developed the weapon system to replace unguided rockets of short range and meet the services requirement for such a battlefield weapon system.

DRDO sources told The HIndu soon after the launch that the mission was a success and met all the objectives. The single-stage, solid-fuelled missile zeroed in onto the pre-designated target in the Bay of Bengal with a high degree of accuracy. All the radars, electro-optical systems and telemetry stations, besides a ship located in the vicinity recorded the entire event.

The new system will be initially made operational in the Army. It will replace the unguided Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher (40 km range) and Smerch (90 km) rocket systems.

Scientific Advisor Defence Minister, V.K. Saraswat, who witnessed the launch, said that the 7.8 metre long missile weighing 1.2 tonnes had high manoeuvrability and acceleration and could be quickly deployed in any terrain by a road mobile launcher. Each launcher will carry six missiles.

Designed to carry omni-directional warheads, Prahaar could be used for hitting both strategic and tactical targets.

India to get Russian Nerpa submarine by year-end

ST. PETERSBURG, July 1: Russia will transfer the K-152 Nerpa attack submarine to India on a 10-year lease by the end of 2011, Navy commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said on Friday.

"We will hand this submarine to the client by the year's end," Vysotsky said and emphasized that the Indian crew is completely trained to operate the submarine.

The lease contract, estimated at some $900 million, was drawn up after an agreement between Moscow and New Delhi in January 2004, in which India agreed to fund part of the Nerpa's construction.

The Nerpa was scheduled to be introduced into the Indian Navy as INS Chakra by mid-2008 but technical problems stalled the process.

Then, shortly after the start of sea trials in November 2008, 20 sailors and technical workers were killed onboard the submarine due to a toxic gas leak when the automatic fire extinguishing system malfunctioned. After repairs, the Nerpa is now fully operational.

India tests nuke capable Prithvi-II missile

NEW DELHI, June 9: India on Thursday test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa as part of the user trial by the Army.

"The missile mounted on a mobile launcher was test-fired from the launch complex-3 in the ITR at around 0905 hours", defence officials said on Thursday.

With a maximum striking range of 350 km, the missile is capable of carrying a pay-load of 500-1000 kg warhead.

"Prithvi-II missile had proved its robustness and accuracy during many trials earlier," an official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

"Taken from routine production lot during earlier users trials by the Army, the missile had achieved single digit accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP)," they said.

The missile, which has features to deceive any anti ballistic missiles, had demonstrated flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 km in 2008 users trial.

Similarly, as a part of the operational exercises by Armed forces, two Prithvi-II missiles, aimed at two different targets at 350 km from launch point of ITR, at Chandipur were successfully launched within minutes of each other on 12th October 2009 and all the mission objectives were met.

The sleek missile once again proved its accuracy when the user, tried it in a salvo mode on 27th March and 18th June 2010 from Chandipur.

It was the fourth successful Prithvi-II flight within a period of eight months.

The test firing of the surface-to-surface missile, which has already been inducted into Indian armed forces, was a routine trial conducted by the personnel of "strategic force command" (SFC), defence officials said.

"The trial was conducted in the presence of senior officials as part of routine training exercises," they said.

'Prithvi', the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), is propelled by liquid propulsion twin engine.

With a length of nine meter and one meter diameter, Prithvi-II uses an advanced inertial navigation system with manoeuvring trajectory.

"The entire trajectory of today's trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, electro-optic telemetry stations and ships launched in the down range impact point area in the Bay of Bengal for the post-launch analysis", the officials said.

India okays biggest deal with US for C-17s at $4.1 bn

NEW DELHI, June 6: Marking the biggest defence deal between India and the US, government on Monday gave a green signal to procurement of 10 C-17 heavy-lift military aircraft at a cost of $4.1 billion, weeks after America lost out in the bid for 126 fighter deal.

Under the deal, cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the planes would be bought through the government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route, defence ministry officials said.

As per the proposed agreement, the US defence major Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, will have to invest 30 per cent of the contract amount for setting up defence facilities in India, officials said.

The procurement involves offsets clause, under which a vendor bagging a defence deal worth over Rs 300 crore has to reinvest at least 30 per cent of the deal amount in Indian defence, homeland security or civilian aerospace sectors.

Prior to this, the biggest deal with the US was worth USD 2.1 billion for procurement of eight P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Boeing through direct commercial sales in 2009.

Boeing, along with another US company Lockheed Martin, had recently failed to qualify in a bid for procurement of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF, which had upset the Americans.

Washington had, however, then said that strategic ties with India would not be overshadowed by exclusion of the two companies from the Indian fighter contract and the bilateral defence dialogue between the two nations would work on enhancing cooperation in cutting edge technology.

Supply of 'heavy' arms to Pak put on hold, France tells India

NEW DELHI, May 27: France has assured India it has for now put on hold supply of "heavy" military hardware to Pakistan, in the backdrop of concerns over the huge amounts of arms Pakistan is getting from the West in the name of the so-called global war on terrorism.

France also made it clear that Pakistan needs to explain the questions which have arisen from Osama bin Laden's killing in the garrison town of Abbottabad, where he had been living for long under the very nose of the Pakistan Army.

This came after visiting French defence minister Gerard Longuet held talks with his Indian counterpart A K Antony, who has time and again expressed the worry that a major part of the military aid Pakistan is getting from the US and other countries is being diverted to bolster its military capabilities against India.

Longuet, on his part, said, "I can tell you that the military equipment which France is selling to Pakistan is only for interception and electronic purposes to fight terrorists...We have discouraged sale of heavy equipment, especially naval equipment."

France, however, has supplied several major weapon systems to Pakistan, including the Agosta-90B submarines, in the past. Side-stepping questions on whether France was now reviewing this policy, Longuet said, "We are awaiting certain clarifications from Pakistan."

Mr Gérard Longuet was on a two-day visit to India on May 26 and 27 in an important step of the Indo-French strategic partnership, strengthened by the visit of President Nicolas Sarkozy to India in December 2010.

Besides meeting Mr Antony, Mr Longuet held meetings with Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, Chief of Air Force Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral N.K. Verma, Chief of Naval Staff, and General V.K. Singh, Chief of Army Staff. Mr Longuet also held high-level meetings with various Indian authorities.

"After the death of Osama, Pakistan should be given an opportunity to explain its position vis-a-vis terrorism," he said, adding that "terror cannot be a weapon of anybody or any government" on being asked about reports detailing ISI's role in the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai.

Underlining that India was "a strategic partner" of France, Longuet said the armies of the two countries would soon hold a joint combat exercise called "Shakti". The two navies and air forces already conduct the 'Varuna' and 'Garuda' series of exercises relatively regularly.

As reported earlier, after the ongoing Rs 23,562-crore Scorpene submarine project underway at Mazagon Docks, France is eyeing two other major Indian defence projects. While the first is the almost-finalised Rs 11,000-crore upgrade of the 52 Mirage-2000 multi-role fighters in IAF's combat fleet, the other is the Rs 42,000-crore project to supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).

With the American F/A-18 'Super Hornet' and F-16 'Super Viper', Swedish Gripen (Saab), and Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation) ejected out of the MMRCA race, the only contenders left in the fray now are the French Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

"The US might be sad (about its jets being eliminated) but with 50% of the world's arms market, they no doubt have other satisfactions...We have full confidence in Indian procedures," said Longuet.

Terror attack on Karachi naval base cause of concern: Antony

NEW DELHI, May 25: India has said the terror attack on a naval base in Karachi was a cause of serious concern, particularly with regards to the safety of nuclear arsenal in Pakistan.

"Naturally it (nuclear arsenal) is a concern not only for us but for everybody," Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters after addressing a Naval Commander's Conference.

Antony was asked if India was worried about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the wake of the attack.

"Our services are taking all precautions and are ready round-the-clock. But at the same time we don't want to overreact," he said.

"Developments in Pakistan, specially in Karachi, are a matter of serious concern to us. We are closely monitoring the situation and are taking precautions also. We are concerned about the developments," Antony said.

"I can assure you that all the three services are taking necessary precautions and we are closely monitoring the situation. But at the same time, we thought we must avoid reacting publicly," he said.

The Defence Minister said, "Not only because of the situation in Pakistan, we are also always on the radar of the terrorists. It is not a new thing, and so our security forces are ever vigilant."

On the controversy surrounding Army Chief General V K Singh's date of birth, he said, "Government had sent a request to Attorney General through the Law Ministry. I can tell you that the AG has sent his opinion through the Law Minister and the Law Secretary."

He said no public controversy should be made out of the issues concerned with the armed forces.