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.
Surface to Air, ballistic, sea-skimming missile doesn't even make sense. This explains why the Trishul was never really adopted (it didn't work) and why the Dhanush isn't even accurate enough to hit a stationary carrier with the CEP of the Prithvi. It has no chance at really engaging ship targets let alone moving ship targets. How will it receive guidance without an equivalent to China's WZ-8 or satellite guidance tech? It doesn't have enough range to really warrant a similar use of detachable communication probe like Chinese AShBM (real ones not those Indian me-toos that exist really on paper and during chest thumping) hence never been even tested against stationary ship despite the relatively short range for a ballistic missile. The Nag is an anti tank missile.
Surface to air means engaging flying target. That already means it's not ballistic. Ballistic is generally used in these contexts to describe a predictable "ballistic" trajectory with minimal if any intentional changes to course. Sea-skimmers are not ballistic either in that sense.
The Brahmos is capable of sea-skimming only at terminal phase but during flight, its path is high altitude and predictable trajectory.
These clowns can't even get these basics right. They probably mean surface to air interceptor for sea-skimming missiles. So yes Trishul but the Trishul is a failed abandoned project.