If you are a defense aspirant then you must be aware about the strength of the defense system of India. One of mostimportant strengths is missiles. If you have applied for technical branch then this article is going to be useful for you. In general also this article will help you in your written exams and Interviews at SSB’s. Here we’ll be covering information collected from different sources about the missiles used in Indian defense.
What is a missile: A missile is a self-propelled guided weapon system. Missiles have four system components: targeting and/or guidance, flight system, engine, and warhead. Missiles are powered by an engine, generally either a type of rocket or jet engine. Rockets are generally of the solid fuel type for ease of maintenance and fast deployment, although some larger ballistic missiles use liquid fuel rockets. Solid fuel is easy to load in missiles and reaction time is less. However, liquid fuel is more efficient.
Missiles are generally categorized by their launch platform and intended target.
On the basis of launch mode:
- Surface-to-Surface Missile
- Surface-to-Air Missile
- Surface-to-Sea(Coast) Missile
- Air-to-Air Missile
- Air-to-Surface Missile
- Sea-to-Sea Missile
- Sea-to-Surface(Coast) Missile
- Anti-Tank Missile
Ballistic and Cruise Missile
Ballistic Missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a ballistic flight path with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. Shorter range ballistic missiles stay within the Earth’s atmosphere, while longer range ones are designed to spend some of their flight time above the atmosphere and are thus considered sub-orbital ones are designed to spend some of their flight time above the atmosphere and are thus considered sub-orbital.
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Cruise Missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile, the major portion of whose flight path to its target (a land-based or sea-based target) is conducted at approximately constant velocity; that relies on the dynamic reaction of air for lift, and upon propulsion forces to balance drag. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy. Modern cruise missiles can travel at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and can fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low altitude trajectory. They are distinct from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in that they are used only as weapons and not for reconnaissance. In a cruise missile, the warhead is integrated into the vehicle and the vehicle is always sacrificed in the mission.
Hypersonic
A hypersonic cruise missile would travel at least 5 times the speed of sound. India’s / BrahMos-II is a stealth hypersonic missile currently under development under India and Russia.
Supersonic
Supersonic
These missiles travel faster than the speed of sound, usually using ramjet engines. The range is typically 100–500 km, but can be greater. Guidance systems vary.
Missiles of India
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Name of the Missile
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Missile class/type
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Special Features
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Agni Series
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Surface to Surface Missiles
Agni-I: SRBMAgni-II: MRBM Agni-III: IRBM
Agni-IV/ Agni-II Prime: MRBM
Agni-V: ICBM
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Agni-IV is a two-stage missile powered by solid propellant. It is 20 meters tall and has a launch weight of 17 tonnes.
A new missile Agni-V with 5,000 km range and MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles) is being developed and was tested on 19 April 2012
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Dhanush(Sanskrit: Bow)
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Ship to Surface Missile
SRBM |
Dhanush is a naval variant of the Prithvi missile
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Nirbhay
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Subsonic Cruise Missile
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Nirbhay is an all-weather low-cost medium-range cruise missile with stealth and high accuracy. The missile will have a range of 750km. The surface version of Nirbhay missile was test fired for the first time on 12th March 2013 from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district of Odisha
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Brahmos I
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Supersonic Cruise Missile
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Range < 300kms. It follows low trajectory and is difficult to detect by enemies and is accurate. RAMJET Engine.
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Brahmos II
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Hypersonic Cruise Missile
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SRAMJET Engine and includes all the features of Brahmos-I
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Sagarika (missile)[Meaning: Survival)
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SLBM (Sub Marine Launched Ballistic Missile)
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It is under K-15 programs. Has second strike capability. This is a submarine launched missile and is likely to be included in INS Arihanth.
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Shaurya
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Surface to Surface missileTBM
Hyper sonic Missile
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Has Inbuilt Stealth Technology
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Nag
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Air to Air
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Nag has ‘fire and forget’ and ‘top attack’ capability. Carrying an eight-kg warhead, it has an infra-red seeker and can destroy enemy tanks four km away.
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Akash
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Surface to Air
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The Akash missile can be launched from static or mobile platforms providing flexible deployment. The system can handle multiple targets and destroy manoeuvring targets such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), fighter aircraft, cruise missiles and missiles launched from helicopters
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Trishool
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Surface to Air ballistic missile
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Designed to be used against low-level (sea skimming) targets at short range, the system has been developed to defend naval vessels against missiles and also as a short range surface to air missile on land.
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Prithvi
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Surface to Surface TBM
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The missile is of particular interest to the United States (and potential buyers) in that has the capability of maneuvering in flight so as to follow one of several different pre-programmed trajectories
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Prahar Missile
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Air defence missile TBM
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Range < 150kms.
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AWACS Missile
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Air Defence missile
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AWACS is simply Radar placed in an Aircraft. It increases the Radar observability and itself is not weapon
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Astra
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Air to Air Missile
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It is a Beyond Visual Range Missile which means they are fire-and-forget kind. There is no fixed target for such missiles.
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Helina
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Surface to Air
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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). It will be structurally different from the Nag.
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Tashi Mishra, Editorial TeamShe is a defense aspirant from Varanasi completed her BCA. She has attended SSB Interview at 1 AFSB Dehradoon and has more SSB coming up. She is confident about joining Defence Forces one day. Here, she is sharing her views and experience. Mail us to join our editorial team now.
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