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Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Those can launch missiles alright. But those are still not actual, proper TELs.
For example, DF-41 TELs looks like this:
The main reason for using TELs is that they can operate off-road. This is useful for a few things.
1) The TELs can be based at remote areas far from major cities and bases.
2) Roads are not guaranteed to be functional after receiving a nuclear 1st strike.
Also, TELs likely come with NBC protection. Which will be needed in nuclear war.
So, based on what we can observe so far, India doesn't have dedicated TELs for its Agni missiles.
This is an article from a website with no prior publishing history, no author information, and no source documents. Some dubious staments too, how does this random web writer know about the seeker performance of Akash-NG?
Surely this isn't their first tracking ship. I remember seeing India in the list of nations with tracking ships when I was a kid. It claimed they were the fourth nation after Russia, China, and US to build and operate their own tracking ship.
Well maybe he does. Maybe he actually has military connections or MIC connections. Who cares. Multiple seekers is relatively common.
What's surprising with India is that they want to upgrade the Akash rather than develop or purchase superior medium range AD. MR-SAM is being developed but no need to spend on Akash then. Just finish the MR-SAM.
At the moment the Spyder the the only credible short range AD with Akash serving mid range and planned S-400 delivery to serve as long range with some overlap in short and medium depending on the package deals.
Akash is too antiquated a design. Ignoring the rest of the system, the missile is extremely low energy (under Mach 3) and of course medium ranged. Its design is also very blundered.
A ramjet sustained mid range missile?? errrgh no wonder the Soviets didn't use their original much and replaced it pretty quickly. If you want to bother with the added complexity and cost of ramjets, then make it much longer ranged. Ramjets also mean much slower speeds (after boost) than rocket and especially multi-stage rockets or multi-pulse/ throttle-able. Unnecessarily complex and expensive propulsion that is inferior. No one else uses ramjets for surface to air... especially short to medium range. It's stupid.
Ramjets typically reserved for air to ground or anti-ship/anti-surface. They're not hard to that complex but surely add to the complexity and cost since the Akash also uses a rocket motor to boost the missile.
So why upgrade Akash when they are working on MR-SAM. The quick reaction SR missiles are to complement the Spyder. Can't Barak medium range missiles be worked on to make it suitable for land? Make their own land based Barak-8. Complement with MR-SAM. Much better than modernised Akash. S-400 covering the long range layer.
Is India still going to purchase the S-400? US is going to make an exception for India with no sanctions I guess.
They will probably sanction them. Just not in a major way that will harm India.
Skywatcher
Captain
The CAASTA sanctions on China and Turkey were essentially slaps on the wrists, anyways.