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design comparison bw P-17 & P17A. [source:
]
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Screenshot from the youtube video. Impressive & beautiful design
but still a lot of improvements can be done.
Deck layout of P-15B vs P-17A
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Problems:
1. The main point to be noticed is the packing efficiency of weapons. RBU's are hogging up a lot of space, both in terms of deck area as well as hull depth. Both Barak-8 & Brahmos have separate VLS, what a clusterfuck!!!
[cant solve this as all the armaments are imported/assembled, not indian designed, so cant dictate the specs]
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2. Then comes the problem of radar placement. Having 2 different masts creates blind-spots for both, as they are obstructed in each other's direction. Its a design choice. Its a compromise a lot of other navies make as well, but thats for cheaper construction. Here, the per unit costs are already astronomical, might as well just create a integrated mast containing all the types of radars.
[cant do that as both radars are imported/assembled. Domestically designed radars will be needed to solve this]
3. Then comes the exhaust stack. Ideally both exhausts should be along the length of the ship and not sideways but the design choice of layout of other sub-systems probably dictates this choice, as there exists 2 radar masts.
[cant do that as imported radars mean you cant configure the layout according to your needs]
Now, if you notice all 3 problems exist because IN doesn't have design control over the sub-systems involved. This is what happens when you just import sub-systems and assemble them like legos. The ship design can't be improved further unless you ditch these systems and make your own from scratch.
A lot of people will argue that RBU's have a lot of utility vis-a-vis drones but that argument makes no sense. The stated range of these rockets is 10km. You are telling me that you can accurately fire RBU's at that range without any guidance?? its just a cope to hide the main problem i.e lack of a universal VLS. You could quad pack a lengthier RBU rocket in a VLS but thats not possible, because you can't design a UVLS. The lack of a universal VLS is hurting IN [as all its ships are shamefully lightly armed due to this very reason]. No packing efficiency as every missile has its own vls launcher.
Why does IN have no Universal VLS??? The answer is lack of design control over its main armaments.
Both Barak-8 and Brahmos are products of JVs with foreign companies.
The bottleneck for brahmos is ramjet motor design which has been lifted as-is from Onyx program. Its dimensions cannot be changed on the whims of the user no matter how rich you are. The fact that just miniaturising the ramjet motor for Brahmos-NG is taking so long should tell you how time consuming resource/capital intensive that whole exercise is.
Similarly, MRSAM is basically lifting the nose cone from the entirely israeli design that is Barak-8. The most critical/expensive part is the guidance which you might have guessed by now, is shipped as-is from IAI to hyderabad, where the rest of the body is manufactured & assembled. The users can't change the dimensions willy-nilly as that would mean spending millions towards a foreign OEM. These shenanigans might work with Indian state owned PSU's but won't work with foreign OEMs without shelling out the appropriate money.
So, the IN can't design a UVLS even if it wanted to beacuse there are no domestic alternatives to Barak-8 & Brahmos. No LR-LACM will not replace brahmos, it will just complement it. To replace brahmos, either STAR missile needs to succeed or they need to create a bigger missile based on SFDR project. Similarly, Barak-8 needs to be replaced. Akash-NG looks like a good alternative but navy has shown no interest. Probably because that would mean ditching the whole MFSTAR design. But the navy is actually going the opposite way. Its frontline frigates and even the frickin Next Gen Corvettes[NGC] are slated to get MFSTAR{wtf???].
So, for atleast another decade, you probably won't see an Indian UVLS. The way things are going, It looks even beyond that you will not see a UVLS. This is due to drip-feeding of expenditure on R&D. The less money you spend on creating your own designs, the more expensive your assembled lego ships will be. If IN had design control over the dimensions of its missiles, it could chalk out a UVLS program easily. That would mean spending more money on domestic capabilities, but babus at MOD prefer bean-counting.
The result of this bean-counting is visible in the upcomg Rafale-M & 3 additional scorpene deal. Bc $2500 pci hai iss desh ki, how can anyone justify such expensive imports??? Domestic programs par kyun nahin lagate itna paisa ye chutiye log???
