India has started a Rs 2,000 crore "smart" weapons programme to maintain parity with the US and Europe in cutting-edge conventional weapons. The program includes smart bombs, precision guided cruise missiles, intelligent mines and stelth fighter aircraft. Many components of the project have reached the field trial stage, defence sources said.
The Indian Defense Research And Development Organization (DRDO) let the cat out of the bag by talking about its research effort in its in-house journal meant for private circulation. In the current scenario of no use of nuclear weapons, the defense systems are strongly biaised in favour of conventional armaments" the latest issue of the journal while detailing some of its technical achievements.
In attempting to justify its May 1998 nuclear tests, India had said a nuclear deterrance capability would reduce budgetary pressures as it would make do with a lesser number of conventional arms. Prime Minister Atal behari Vajpayee's special envoy Jashwant Singh has argued with US officials that a small nuclear arsenal could substitute for a substantially more expensive conventional armory.
Foremost among the new high tech weapons is a laser guided "smart" bomb which homes in on its target when launched from an aircraft. The bombs are meant to cut through to bunkers and other well protected and camouflaged enemy installations. If sources are to be believed, DRDO has even held trials of the smart bombs at the Pokhran test range, the same place it exploded 73 kilotons of nuclear weapons on May 11-13.
Another interesting development is the under-sea intelligent mine "gold fish". It is laid on the sea bed and functions on acoustic and magnetic influences of the target.
The mine electronics based on complimentary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) technology allow different modes of deployment, influence selection and timing. The mine can be programmed to avoid blowing up on friendly ships. The mine has been tried out in the eastern coast test range of Balasore and was introduced in the navy early this year.
A "smart" guidance system has been developed which can be adapted to air launched bombs, missiles, field artillery shells and ship launched missiles. These contain a guidance system which can be programmed to look for a target with a certain physical or electronic description. After the missile or bomb is fired, a rotofoil parachute opens to give time to the guidance system to find the target. Once the target is locked -on a secondary fuse ignites sending the projectile towards the target at high velocity to explode on contact.
DRDO sources said various static and dynamic tests on several types of smart weapons have been conducted. Large-scale system integration into existing platforms like the Prithvi surface-to-surface missile, the multi barrel rocket launcher Pinaka, 155mm field gun shells and air-to-ground missiles is on.
India has the propellant and guidance system for a ship launched cruise missile with a 300 km range, something like the US Tomahawk cruise missile which struck at terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan.
Defense analysts believe a new project called "Surya" (Sun). It is believed to be India's answer to the Tomahawk and that the program is only a few months from testing.
The government realised that advanced delivery platforms like the Sukhoi-30 aircraft, missiles and ships were of little use if the armaments that fire from them have to sourced from Russia or western Europe whose supply was subject to price and political instability. Also, expensive advanced defense technology was veering towards precision guided munitions both to hit at selective targets and minimise on wastage.
The DRDO set up a high-level policy making body called the Armaments Research Board (ARB) in 1995 to decide the nature and type of armaments required and assigns research tasks to various DRDO laboratories and public funded research bodies like the Indian Space Research Organization and Council for Industrial Research..
The DRDO leapfrogged from World War II type armaments to the latest in a matter of five to 7 years. Inspired by the Allies' success in the Gulf War and later the Bosnia operations, the DRDO got to work on the new generation armaments with practically no foreign help. Everything _ the materials, electronics, assembly and basic drawings was made in Indian labs.
The armaments programme has recieved top priority in fundings during the last two years. Budget in excess of Rs 2,000 crore (US $ 500 million) has been earmarked over a four year period starting 1996.
