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6 décembre 2013 5 06 /12 /décembre /2013 17:35
Strategic Weapons: India Improves Its SCUD Clones

 

December 6, 2013: Strategy Page

 

India recently had another successful test of their Prithvi II ballistic missile. This is progress, because in September 2010 a Prithvi II test failed as the rocket motor began burning fuel, but not enough to get it off the launcher. There was lots of smoke and confusion, but no launch. This was a user trial where military crews were making sure they were able to use a new weapon that had been successfully completed testing using manufacturer personnel to operate it. This is a common practice, but particularly necessary in India, where the manufacturers often cut corners during development and testing. The troops on the military launch crews are usually not privy to these workarounds, and the developers sometimes just keep their fingers crossed that the troops can handle things on their own. For example, in 2009 the first user test of the ground launched BrahMos cruise missile failed. Not a major problem, it turned out. After a few months, everything was put right. That’s what happened with the Prithvi II.

 

The first successful test of the 4.6 ton Prithvi II took place in 2009 and it successfully hit a target 350 kilometers away. The 2010 launch was to test the ability of the missile to carry a half ton warhead. This is the minimum size for a nuclear warhead. Used with a nuclear warhead Prithvi II is a strategic weapon, since it can put those nuclear warheads on major targets within neighboring Pakistan. In the last three years Prithvi II has been improved to the point where it can reach targets 350 kilometers away while carrying a one ton warhead.

 

A Prithvi III is in development. This is the Prithvi II modified to be operated from ships. This missile can carry a half ton warhead 600 kilometers. The increase in range and warhead weight for the Prithvi III was achieved by using a solid fuel rocket motor, and adding a second stage with a liquid fuel motor. The Prithvi II uses a liquid fuel rocket. The navy has not installed the Prithvi III on any of its ships because it was discovered that the liquid fuel was too dangerous to handle aboard a ship at sea.

 

The Prithvi is a ballistic missile that reaches its target within 5-10 minutes of launch and was originally developed as a shorter range (150 kilometers) missile. Prithvi uses liquid fuel, meaning it takes up to an hour to ready for launch. In 2013 India announced that it is replacing over a hundred Prithvi I ballistic missiles with the solid fuel Prahar. While the air force controls long range ballistic missiles, the army has long been supplied with some shorter range Prithvi Is. This is a single stage, road mobile, liquid fuel battlefield support missile that weighs 4.4 tons and is nine meters (27.3 feet) long, 110cm in diameter and costing about a million dollars each. Introduced in 1994, the army version has a 150 kilometer range and carries a one ton warhead.

 

The Prahar is more compact and reliable. It weighs 1.3 tons, is 7.3 meters (23.6 feet) long and 42cm in diameter, costing less than a million dollars each and carrying a 200 kg (440 pound) warhead. Prahar can be carried and fired from a TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) that will haul six Prahars, each in a sealed container. Prahar can carry nuclear or conventional warheads and the TEL can fire salvos of up to six missiles, each in quick succession. The guidance system brings the missile to within ten meters of its aiming point. This is more than twice as accurate as Prithvi I. Most importantly, a Prahar can be fired within minutes of receiving the order while the Prithvi I takes over an hour to fuel and prepare for launch.

 

Prithvi I is similar to the old Russian SCUD, which is a direct descendent of the first ballistic missile, the German V-2 in World War II. The U.S. produced the Corporal missile as an equivalent to the SCUD, but replaced it with solid fuel missiles in the 1960s. Russia replaced its SCUDS in the 1970s and the U.S. replaced its liquid fuel battlefield missiles a decade earlier. But a lot of SCUD type missiles remain in service around the world. India is in the process of replacing most of its liquid fuel missiles with solid fuel types.

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21 décembre 2012 5 21 /12 /décembre /2012 08:45

Prithvi (P-II)

 

21.12.2012 Pacific Sentinel

 

BALASORE, ODISHA (PTI): India on Thursday successfully test-fired the indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range at Chandipur near Balasore.

The surface-to-surface missile was test fired from a mobile launcher in salvo mode from launch complex-3 of Integrated Test Range at about 9:21 am, defence sources said.

The launch of the sophisticated missile, conducted as part of operational exercise by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the defence services, was successful, they said.

Read the full story at Brahmand
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5 octobre 2012 5 05 /10 /octobre /2012 14:42

Dhanush13Dec20093.JPG

 

NEW DELHI, 5 octobre - RIA Novosti

 

L'armée indienne a testé vendredi avec succès un missile balistique naval Dhanush capable de porter une charge nucléaire, rapporte l'agence de presse IANS.

 

Le missile a été tiré depuis un navire dans le golfe du Bengale, au large de l'Etat d'Orissa (est).

 

D'une portée de tir maximale de 350 km, le missile Dhanush constitue l'équivalent maritime du Prithvi-II et est capable de transporter une charge de 500 kg, y compris une tête nucléaire.

 

Le 4 octobre, l'Inde a réussi le tir d'essai d'un missile balistique Prithvi-II.

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5 octobre 2012 5 05 /10 /octobre /2012 07:15

Prithvi (P-II)

 

Oct. 5, 2012 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Indian Ministry of Defence; issued Oct. 4, 2012)

 

The Army’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) fired the 350 km range Prithvi missile today from the range facility at Chandipur, off the Odisha coast.The entire trajectory of the missile was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and naval ships.

 

The Prithvi missile is equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation system and guided by an innovative guidance scheme. The improved Circular Error Probability (CEP) achieved is a testimony to the efficacy of this missile system.

 

A senior member of the Prithvi team said, the flight “most importantly, conveys our preparedness to meet any eventuality” The mission “fully validated our operational readiness”.

 

With this launch the Army’s Strategic Forces Command has successfully carried out in operational conditions launches of all the variants of Prithvi and Agni missiles.

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4 octobre 2012 4 04 /10 /octobre /2012 12:45

Prithvi--P-II-.jpg

Prithvi (P-II), archives

 

NEW DELHI, 4 octobre - RIA Novosti

 

L'armée indienne a testé jeudi avec succès un missile balistique Prithvi-II capable de porter une charge nucléaire, rapporte l'agence de presse IANS.

 

Le missile a été tiré depuis le site de Chandipur, dans l'Etat d'Orissa (est).

 

Le Prithvi-II a une portée de tir maximale de 350 km et il est capable de transporter une charge de 500 kg, y compris une tête nucléaire.

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4 octobre 2012 4 04 /10 /octobre /2012 12:25

prithvi1

 

October 3, 2012 by Ritu Sharma - defenceexpress

 

Surface to Surface, Ballistic Missile Prithvi-II, with a range of 350 Kms, was successfully flight tested at 9.10 A.M, from Launch Complex at ITR (Integrated Test Range), Chandipur in Balasore district of Odisha.  The DRDO developed Prithvi-II Missile is already inducted into the Armed Forces. The Strategic Force Command (SFC) has launched the Missile as part of exercise. All the mission objectives have been fully met.

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26 septembre 2011 1 26 /09 /septembre /2011 12:00

http://fr.rian.ru/images/18882/51/188825168.jpg

 

NEW DELHI, 26 septembre - RIA Novosti

 

L'armée indienne a testé lundi avec succès un missile balistique Prithvi-II, rapporte l'agence Press Trust of India citant les sources officielles.

 

Le missile a été tiré depuis le polygone de Chandipur, situé dans l'Etat d'Orissa (est). Par ailleurs, les médias indiquent qu'un tir réussi d'un missile balistique Shaurya a été effectué le 24 septembre depuis le même site.

 

La portée de Prithvi-II est de 350 kilomètres. Conçu par les spécialistes indiens, il est capable de porter des charges allant jusqu'à 500 kg, nucléaires ou classiques. La portée de Shaurya s'élève quant à elle à 600 km.

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3 septembre 2011 6 03 /09 /septembre /2011 08:00

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Agni-II_missile_(Republic_Day_Parade_2004).jpeg/800px-Agni-II_missile_(Republic_Day_Parade_2004).jpeg

 

NEW DELHI, Sept. 2 (UPI)

 

India postponed until next week a test-firing of its indigenously built Agni II ballistic nuclear capable missile due to a technical glitch.

 

The two-stage surface-to-surface missile was to be tested by its Strategic Forces Command from Wheeler Island off the Bay of Bengal on Monday, a report in the Indian Express newspaper said.

 

"But we had to postpone the test due to technical problems," Avinash Chander, director of the Agni missile program, said.

 

The day next week for the launch is not decided, said Chander, who gave no reason for the failure.

 

But previous missile failures have been blamed on guidance problems.

 

There also were doubts about continuous rainfall in Balasore near the test-firing range over the past three days.

 

India has a checkered history of launching indigenously built missiles, including the Agni I, II and III weapons.

 

The basic Agni series includes the single-stage 450-mile range Agni I, already inducted into service, and the two-stage Agni II and III models.

 

The 1,200-mile range Agni II was inducted into the army in 2004 and still is undergoing test-firings. The 65-foot missile weighs around 17 tons and can carry a 1-tonne payload.

 

The 2,000-mile range Agni III is in the last stages of development.

 

The solid-propellant Agni series of ballistic missiles are manufactured by Bharat Dynamics, one of India's major manufacturers of munitions and missile systems founded in 1970 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

 

Bharat Dynamics also manufactures India's Konkurs anti-tank missile.

 

Agni-II has been developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory along with other laboratories under the government-backed Defense Research and Development Organization.

 

India's main missile test launch center is Wheeler Island -- just over 1 mile long and 6 miles off the country's east coast in the Bay of Bengal and about 90 miles from Bhubaneshwar, the capital city of Orissa state.

 

It was from Wheeler Island that Agni III, with a range of just over 2,000 miles, was successfully test-launched from a mobile launcher in February last year.

 

During a test launch the following month, a Prithvi missile veered off its path, failing to reach its required altitude of around 70 miles. It climbed to around 45 miles before tumbling back into the Bay of Bengal.

 

Then in September, the DRDO acknowledged guidance problems that caused a failure in another Prithvi missile test launch. The surface-to-surface missile remained on the launch pad during a trial in Chandipur, Orissa.

 

The short-range, 4.6-tonne nuclear-capable missile became enveloped in orange smoke and the launch was aborted, officials from the DRDO said at the time.

 

"The failure to lift Prithvi II was due to a snag either in the main missile or the sub-system, including the launcher," a DRDO spokesman said.

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21 juillet 2011 4 21 /07 /juillet /2011 11:55
India test-fires new short range missile Prithvi-II

Test launch of a Prithvi (P-II) surface-to-surface missile by the Indian Armed Forces. (Photo: DRDO)

 

July 21, 2011 defpro.com

 

NEW DELHI | India successfully test-fired on Thursday its new quick reaction, short range Prahaar missile, regional media reported.

 

The missile blasted off at about 8.15 am local time (02:45 GMT) from the Integrated Test Range in the eastern state of Orissa, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

 

"The test launch was fully successful as the surface-to-surface, sleek missile mounted on a road mobile launcher, roared into an overcast sky, seconds within its blast off," a defense source was quoted by PTI as saying.

 

The 150-km range Prahaar is a single-stage missile fuelled by solid propellants, media reports said. It is designed to fill the gap between Pinaka, a 40-km multi-barrel rocket system, and the 350-km range, nuclear-capable Prithvi-II, a surface-to-surface strategic missile.

 

The uniqueness of the missile system is that "in one salvo, six missiles can be fired with multiple targets," PTI quoted a scientist associated with this project as saying.

 

The test was initially scheduled for Sunday, but was postponed for Thursday to allow for additional tests of the vehicle which the missile was mounted on, the Hindu website said. (RIA Novosti)

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10 juin 2011 5 10 /06 /juin /2011 06:10

http://fr.rian.ru/images/18882/51/188825168.jpg

 

NEW DELHI, 9 juin - RIA Novosti

 

L'Inde a procédé jeudi à un tir d'essai du missile balistique Prithvi-II depuis le polygone de Chandipur, dans l'Etat d'Orissa (est), rapporte l'agence IANS.

 

Long de 8,56 mètres, le missile est capable de porter des charges allant jusqu'à une tonne, nucléaires ou classiques. Le développement a été lancé en 1983. Onze ans après le missile a été adopté par l'armée.

 

Les tests précédents de Prithvi-II et de son équivalent maritime Dhanush ont été effectués en mars dernier et ont été couronnés de succès.

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9 juin 2011 4 09 /06 /juin /2011 17:15

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7KKa399kzDU/TfB0GNZgz8I/AAAAAAAANSY/WZ12SOcTXiA/s1600/ITR_0057-791371.JPG

 

09.06.2011 LIVEFIST

 

India's surface-to-surface Prithvi-II (P-II) missile was successfully flight tested on at 9AM today from the country's missile test range on the Eastern seaboard. The launch was carried out as part of regular training exercises of the Army and nuclear command. Prithvi-II, the first indigenous surface-to-surface strategic missile, capable of attacking targets at ranges of 350-km, hit a predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with "very high accuracy of better than 10 meters", according to a DRDO statement. An Indian Navy ship located near the target recorded the final event. The flight test of the Prithvi-II met all the mission objectives.


Photos / DRDO

 

 

 

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12 mars 2011 6 12 /03 /mars /2011 07:00
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