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Can anyone answer this question?
Which of the following is a surface to air ballistic sea-skimming missile?
a)Nag. b)Brahmos. c)Trishul. d)Dhanush.

It was asked in today's AFCAT paper.

HaldilalSDF said:

surface to air ballistic sea-skimming missile

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What? How does a sea-skimming missile hit an air target?

silentlurker said:

What? How does a sea-skimming missile hit an air target?

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That's why I was baffled.

HaldilalSDF said:

That's why I was baffled.

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Maybe they misordered it? Air to surface sea skimming?

silentlurker said:

Maybe they misordered it? Air to surface sea skimming?

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Even with that non of the above options will fit.

HaldilalSDF said:

Can anyone answer this question?
Which of the following is a surface to air ballistic sea-skimming missile?

Click to expand...

A Google search says Trishul

Never heard of it. Seems like a very odd missile that was developed to counter sea Skimming cruise missiles. Wiki says it has an anti-sea Skimming role. And it was developed during 1980s.
If it's still relevant then it must have got upgraded. Probably for Coastal defence.

So the question is wrong.

Ona lighter note -
Although, pompous as it sounds, Brahmos could be a strong contender. Almost everything is answered by Brahmos these days.

China attack? Brahmos. Pakistan strike? Brahmos
Invasion of extra dimensional entities? Brahmos.
Attack of an intergalactic invasion force from Crab Nebula? Brahmos.

Xsizor said:

A Google search says Trishul

Never heard of it. Seems like a very odd missile that was developed to counter sea Skimming cruise missiles. Wiki says it has an anti-sea Skimming role. And it was developed during 1980s.
If it's still relevant then it must have got upgraded. Probably for Coastal defence.

So the question is wrong.

Ona lighter note -
Although, pompous as it sounds, Brahmos could be a strong contender. Almost everything is answered by Brahmos these days.

China attack? Brahmos. Pakistan strike? Brahmos
Invasion of extra dimensional entities? Brahmos.
Attack of an intergalactic invasion force from Crab Nebula? Brahmos.

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Trishul never entered productions. But my answer is also Trishul.

HaldilalSDF said:

Can anyone answer this question?
Which of the following is a surface to air ballistic sea-skimming missile?
a)Nag. b)Brahmos. c)Trishul. d)Dhanush.

It was asked in today's AFCAT paper.

Click to expand...

Ballistic and sea skimming? That is literally impossible unless the sea is also an arch.... And anti air?

PiSigma said:

Ballistic and sea skimming? That is literally impossible unless the sea is also an arch.... And anti air?

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My reaction was like this.

What kind of question is that?.

Surface to air, that too ballistic and again sea skimming?.

The only surface to air missile in the options is trishul, every missile is theoretically a ballistic missile provided it has the capability to fly in a ballistic trajectory, here dhanush is the closest to a ballistic missile. Strictly speaking only brahmos is Active in service sea skimming. Trishul was projected to have low level interception capabilities but sea skimming is used for missiles flying at wave top level over water bodies.

If you ask me none of the options is correct technically.

But for the sake of the exam, the closest choice would be trishul IMO since it is a surface to air missile.

The VLSRSAM is longer than Astra.


Astra has rail guides , visible on one of the side ( in the pic top side ) as it is rail launched.

Now note VLSRSAM it also has rail guides , visible on one of the side ( in the pic top side ) , most probably to act as guide inside the canister.

Now this raises a interesting possibility - VLSRSAM in the future has the potential to be reconfigured as an air to air missile with TVC , using the existing Astra Mk1 rail launch pylons , possibly as an updated and more aerodynamically capable Astra Mk1.

This is just my personal opinion . Nothing more.