Indian Missiles and Munitions Discussion

Before this is discussed lets first talk few basic points. I guess you might already know this but lets talk about it anyways.
1. Damage drops inverse inverse cubic relation of distance from the ground zero. Meaning, from a place that is 10 KM away from ground zero will have one thousandth of damage than a place which is one kilometer away from ground zero.

2. So, it is better to have multiple smaller bombs than one single megaton bomb dropped on a city for instance.

Based on this, no, India will not even attempt to go for a megatonne yield bomb. Its not needed. India will like to have 100-250 KT yield bomb. Now is this hydrogen bomb? Well... no one knows. There are doubts about our design of hydrogen bomb. But we may just be able to deliver weapons without even having a hydrogen bomb design working.

India indeed tested a plutonium based boosted fission bomb. This can scale easily to 100 Kilotonne or may be 200 kilotonne. At 100-120 Kilotonne, it can weight (in best cases) upto 500-700 KG. A comparable design will be french MR-41 warhead from 60s-80s. It had a yield of 500KT and weigh 700 KG. I am sure, Indian scientists should have figured how to put together a 100-120 KT yield warhead with a weight of 500-700 KG.

So you have a 600 KG (mid-figure) warhead with yield of 100 KT. This if MIRV'ed can fit 2-3 warhead in missile nose Agni-3 modified to have a MIRV design. So with 2-4 missile per city, you can blow up entire cities like Shanzen or Lahore. With 10-15 missiles you can blow up 4-6 cities of China or Pakistan.

The cost is launching 2-4 missiles where one missile would have been enough and using more nuclear fuel.
I do agree that destruction causrd by three 200KT nuke will be roughly equal or just above 1 MT device. But problem with india is
1) we yet to master MIRV technology, and it is minimum 5-10 years away fro a functional MIRV ( based on our previous record of roughly 5 year development cycle for a new ballistic missile ). So we need to use precious A5 for single weapin delivery in numbers to match chinese megaton H bomb.
2) We don't have a long range bomber to carry few nuke devices over china.
3) The biggest concern is, we dont have enough inventory of nuke to wipe out china, reason is we need to take care pakistani too.

So i feel we should start building megaton H bomb, it may not be an efficient killing machine but surely we can save few ballistic missile.
 
I do agree that destruction causrd by three 200KT nuke will be roughly equal or just above 1 MT device. But problem with india is
1) we yet to master MIRV technology, and it is minimum 5-10 years away fro a functional MIRV ( based on our previous record of roughly 5 year development cycle for a new ballistic missile ). So we need to use precious A5 for single weapin delivery in numbers to match chinese megaton H bomb.
2) We don't have a long range bomber to carry few nuke devices over china.
3) The biggest concern is, we dont have enough inventory of nuke to wipe out china, reason is we need to take care pakistani too.

So i feel we should start building megaton H bomb, it may not be an efficient killing machine but surely we can save few ballistic missile.

Having a megaton H-bomb will not remove the need for a MIRV. The other option is to just go for more missiles. MIRV is force multiplier. You get one missile to do the work of 10 missiles. If you don't have that, you will have to make do with 10 missiles. It reduces flexibility.

Secondly, its much less politically troublesome to test a MIRV than to test a H-bomb. So we will test MIRV may be in due time. We will use single warhead missiles with lots of penetration aids till then.

BTW, missiles cost can be optimized because at the end of the day, rockets do require some exotic fuel but can be produced in number. Testing and producing a new warhead is hard. I am fairly certain that we have a warhead which can deliver between 80-120 kt with 100 kt being the median. We will end up paying a lot more for each warhead though because we will use a lot more of precious nuclear fuel like Pu-239.

There was a reason why warheads of 50s or 60s used to be in megatonnes. Their missiles had accuracy in 1000s of meters. These days, its not unheard of having missile and RV with accuracy of 10s of meters. That means you need much lower yield. Most likely 10 times less.
 
India Offers Brahmos Cruise Missile Exports to Indonesia

India and Indonesia agreed to expand cooperation in the defense sector. including industry and technology sharing. The possibility of expanding relations in the defense and military fields was further discussed during talks between Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Indonesian Defense Minister Lieutenant General (Ret) Prabowo Subianto.

Reflecting the importance of Indonesia in relation to its strategic relations with India, Prabowo arrived in India on Sunday (7/26), to hold talks with military officials, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the country.

Sources said, the problem of the possibility of exporting Brahmos cruise missiles to Indonesia by India and further steps to deepen maritime security cooperation were prominent in talks between the two countries.



"The two ministers agreed to further enhance bilateral defense cooperation in areas that were mutually agreed upon. The potential for cooperation in the defense industry and defense technology sectors was also identified by the two countries, "the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, quoted from The Print , Monday (27/8).

In the statement, both Singh and Subianto committed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and bring defense ties to the "next level of delivery."

"The meeting ended on a positive note with a commitment to further strengthen and expand the scope of bilateral cooperation between the two countries," the Defense Ministry said without giving details.

India and Indonesia have strong cooperation in the defense and security sector.
The two countries signed a new defense cooperation agreement in 2018 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Indonesia. The pact aims to reflect increased relations between the two countries for a comprehensive strategic partnership.

In Monday's talks, Defense Minister repeated the long history of mutually beneficial interactions between the two countries with a tradition of close political dialogue, economic and trade relations as well as cultural and person-to-person interactions. Officials said the two sides explored various fields to further expand strategic cooperation including in the defense industry and share technology.

While India Sentinelsreported, Prabowo paid a working visit to Indonesia for three days, namely on July 26-28, 2020. On Monday, Prabowo began the agenda of the visit by laying a wreath at the National War Memorial in the national capital of India. He was welcomed by the Honorary Guard at South Block Lawns, and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh received Prabowo's arrival at his office in South Block. Then, the two ministers held bilateral talks in a closed manner to further strengthen the defense ties of India and Indonesia.

In a meeting with Prabowo, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh was accompanied by Chief of Defense Staff and Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs General Bipin Rawat, Army Chief of Staff (KSAD) General MM Naravane, Chief of Navy Staff (KSAL) Admiral Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of Staff of the Air Force (KSAU) ) Marshal RKS Bhadauria, and Secretary of the Defense Ministry Dr. Ajay Kumar.

India Tawarkan Ekspor Rudal Jelajah Brahmos ke Prabowo |Republika Online
 
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Difference in physical features between Akash NG and Astra MK2
 
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Comparison of physical features between VL-ASTRA and ASTRA ( initial version ) and ASTRA MK1

And this is the VL-ASTRA mobile launcher mounted on a HMV. 4 VL-ASTRA missiles per vehicle . Hot launch capability . Very quick reloading and doesn't require reloading crane.

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4 VL-ASTRA per launcher :

2 IIR seeker based
2 RF seeker based

Or any combination as required.
 
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Since few years work has being going on aerospike both for civilian and military use . DRDO has been working on extensible aerospike for its K and A series long range missiles.
 
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