Saturday, February 9, 2013

Prithvi (missile)


Prithvi (Sanskrit: पृथ्वी, pṛthvī "Earth") is a tactical surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) developed by DRDO of Indiaunder the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.

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[edit]Development and History

The Government of India launched the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program in 1983 to achieve self sufficiency in the development and production of wide range of Ballistic Missiles, Surface to Air Missiles etc.
Prithvi was the first missile to be developed under the Program. DRDO attempted to build Surface-to-air Missile under Project Devil.[1]
Variants make use of either liquid or both liquid and solid fuels. Developed as a battlefield missile, it could carry a nuclear warhead in its role as a tactical nuclear weapon.

[edit]Variants

The Prithvi missile project encompassed developing 3 variants for use by the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. The initial project framework of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program outlines the variants in the following manner.[2]
  • Prithvi I (SS-150) - Army Version (150 km range with a payload of 1,000 kg)
  • Prithvi II (SS-250) - Air Force Version (250 km range with a payload of 500 kg)
  • Prithvi III (SS-350) - Naval Version (350 km range with a payload of 1000 kg)
  • Dhanush- Dhanush is reportedly a naval version of Prithvi which can be launched from ships.[3] Some sources claim that Dhanush is a system consisting of stabilization platform and missiles, which has the capability to launch both Prithvi II and Prithvi III from Ships[1]while others report that Dhanush is a variant of Prithvi-II ballistic missile.
Over the years these specifications underwent a number of changes. While the codename Prithvi stands for any missile inducted by India into its armed forces in this category, the later developmental versions are codenamed as Prithvi II and Prithvi III.

[edit]Description

Prithvi I missile

[edit]Prithvi I

Prithvi I class was a surface-to-surface missile having a maximum warhead mounting capability of 1,000 kg, with a range of 150 km. It has an accuracy of 10 – 50 metres and can be launched from Transporter erector launchers. This class of Prithvi missile was inducted into the Indian Army in 1994.

[edit]Prithvi II

Prithvi II class is also a single stage liquid-fuelled missile having a maximum warhead mounting capability of 500 kg, but with an extended range of 250 kilometres. It was developed with the Indian Air Force being the primary user. It was first test-fired on January 27, 1996 and the development stages were completed in 2004. This variant has been inducted in to the Army as well.In a recent test, the Missile was launched with an extended range of 350 kilometres and improved Aided Inertial Navigation. The missile has the features to deceive Anti Ballistic Missiles. After a failed test on 24 September 2010[4] two more missiles were launched on December 22, 2010 which proved to be complete success. According to ITR director S P Dash: "It was a fantastic launch. Two missiles aimed at two different targets, met all the mission objectives. It was a copy book success." [5] According to news sources[6] the range is now increased to 350 km and the payload capacity now ranges between 500 to 1000 kg.[7][8] A test firing on 9 June 2011 at the Interim Test Range in Chandipur was successful with the missile reaching an accuracy of better than 10 meters.[9] Prithvi II was successfully test fired again on 25 August 2012 covering its full range of 350 kilometers,[10] and again on 4 October 2012 yielding same results.[11]
Agni and Prithvi missile models in DRDO,Balasore

[edit]Prithvi III

Prithvi III class (codenamed Dhanush meaning Bow) is a two-stage ship-to-surface missile. The first stage is solid fuelled with a 16 metric ton force(157 kN) thrust motor. The second stage is liquid fuelled. The missile can carry a 1,000 kg warhead to a distance of 350 km and a 500 kg warhead to a distance of 600 kilometres and a 250 kilogram warhead up to a distance of 750 kilometres. Dhanush is a system consisting of a stabilization platform (Bow) and the Missile (Arrow). Supposedly it is a customised version of the Prithvi and that the additional customizations in missile configuration is to certify it for sea worthiness. Dhanush has to be launched from a hydraulically stabilized launch pad. Its low range acts against it and thus it is seen a weapons either to be used to destroy an aircraft carrier or an enemy port. The missile has been tested from the surface ships many times.
Prithvi III was first tested in 2000 from INS Subhadra, a Sukanya class patrol craft. The missile was launched from an updated, reinforced helicopter deck of the vessel. The first flight test of the 250 km variant was only partially successful.[12] The full operational testing was completed in 2004.[13] The following year in December an enhanced 350 km version of the missile was tested from the INS Rajput and successfully hit a land based target.[14] The missile was again successfully tested-fired from INS Subhadra anchored about 35 km offshore from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur on December 13, 2009. It was the sixth test of the missile.[15] Up to now this missile has not been deployed largely for logistical deficiencies. It requires explosive liquid fuel which is hard to store. Its accuracy is also supposed to be less than that of Brahmos. Plus it cannot be launched vertically which forces all missiles to be stored on the surface of the ship. Vertically launched missiles can be stored internally in the hull of a ship. This deficiency also means that it will not be used in submarines or underwater systems.

[edit]See also

[edit]References

  1. ^ a b Arun Vishwakarma. "PRITHVI SRBM". Bharat Rakshak. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  2. ^ Centre for Non Proliferation Studies Archive accessed 18 October 2006.
  3. ^ "DHANUSH SUCCESSFULLY TEST FIRED". Ministry of Defence Press Release. Retrieved 2008-02-05. "The test-fired missile Dhanush, is a naval version of Prithvi, developed by DRDO and manufactured by M/s Bharat Dynamics Limited."
  4. ^ "PIB Press Release". Pib.nic.in. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  5. ^ "India test-fires two Prithvi-II ballistic missiles". The Times Of India. 2010-12-22.
  6. ^ "Improved Prithvi-II successfully test fired". Indianexpress.com. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  7. ^ "TOI" url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nuclear-capable-Prithvi-II-test-fired/articleshow/8784940.cms+(2011-06-09).
  8. ^ PTI, Oct 12, 2009, 10.40am IST (2009-10-12). "Two nuclear capable Prithvi-2 missiles successfully test fired - India - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  9. ^ Unacknowledged (09-06-2011). "Prithvi-II successfully launched". Business Line. The Hindu. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  10. ^ "Prithvi II successfully test-fired". thehindu.com. 2012-08-25. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  11. ^ "Prithvi-II ballistic missile test fired". The Hindu. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  12. ^ "Nuclear Data - Table of Indian Nuclear Forces, 2002". NRDC. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  13. ^ Unacknowledged (12 Oct 2009). "Prithvi". Bharat Rakshak Missiles. Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  14. ^ domain-b.com: Dhanush, naval surface-to-surface missile, test fired successfully
  15. ^ "'Dhanush' missile successfully test-fired". The Times Of India. 2009-12-14.
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Missile


This article is about guided missiles. For other uses, see Missile (disambiguation). For unguided missiles, see projectile.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)
A V-2 missile launch by the British duringOperation Backfire
In a modern military, a missile is a self-propelled guided weapon system. Missiles have four system components: targeting and/or guidance, flight system, engine, and warhead. Missiles come in types adapted for different purposes: surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles (ballistic, cruise, anti-ship, anti-tank), surface-to-air missiles (anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic), air-to-air missiles, and anti-satellite missiles.
An ordinary English-language usage predating guided weapons is simply any thrown object, such as items thrown at players by rowdy spectators at a sporting event.[1]

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[edit]Etymology and usage

The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send".
In military usage, munitions projected towards a target are broadly categorised as follows:
  • A powered, guided munition that travels through the air or space is known as a missile (or guided missile.)
  • A powered, unguided munition is known as a rocket.
  • Unpowered munitions not fired from a gun are called bombs whether guided or not; unpowered, guided munitions are known as guided bombs or "smart bombs".
  • Munitions that are fired from a gun are known as projectiles whether guided or not. If explosive they are known more specifically as shells or mortar bombs.
  • Powered munitions that travel through water are called torpedoes (an older usage includes fixed torpedoes, which might today be called mines).
  • Hand grenades are not usually classed as missiles.
A common further sub-division is to consider ballistic missile to mean a munition that follows a ballistic trajectory and cruise missile to describe a munition that generates lift.

[edit]Early development

See also: History of rockets
The first missiles to be used operationally were a series of missiles developed by Nazi Germany in World War II. Most famous of these are the V-1 flying bomb and V-2, both of which used a simple mechanical autopilot to keep the missile flying along a pre-chosen route. Less well known were a series of anti-shipping and anti-aircraft missiles, typically based on a simple radio controlsystem directed by the operator. However, these early systems in World War II were only built in small numbers.

[edit]Technology

Guided missiles have a number of different system components:

[edit]Guidance systems

Main article: Missile guidance
Missiles may be targeted in a number of ways. The most common method is to use some form of radiation, such as infrared, lasers or radio waves, to guide the missile onto its target. This radiation may emanate from the target (such as the heat of an engine or the radio waves from an enemy radar), it may be provided by the missile itself (such as a radar) or it may be provided by a friendly third party (such as the radar of the launch vehicle/platform, or a laser designator operated by friendly infantry). The first two are often known as fire-and-forget as they need no further support or control from the launch vehicle/platform in order to function. Another method is to use a TV camera—using either visible light or infra-red—in order to see the target. The picture may be used either by a human operator who steers the missile onto its target, or by a computer doing much the same job. One of the more bizarre guidance methods instead used a pigeon to steer the missile to its target.
Many missiles use a combination of two or more of the above methods, to improve accuracy and the chances of a successful engagement.

[edit]Targeting systems

Another method is to target the missile by knowing the location of the target, and using a guidance system such as INS, TERCOM or GPS. This guidance system guides the missile by knowing the missile's current position and the position of the target, and then calculating a course between them. This job can also be performed somewhat crudely by a human operator who can see the target and the missile, and guides it using either cable or radio based remote-control, or by an automatic system that can simultaneously track the target and the missile.

[edit]Flight system

Whether a guided missile uses a targeting system, a guidance system or both, it needs a flight system. The flight system uses the data from the targeting or guidance system to maneuver the missile in flight, allowing it to counter inaccuracies in the missile or to follow a moving target. There are two main systems: vectored thrust (for missiles that are powered throughout the guidance phase of their flight) and aerodynamic maneuvering (wings, fins, canards, etc.).

[edit]Engine

Missiles are powered by an engine, generally either a type of rocket or jet engine. Rockets are generally of the solid fuel type for ease of maintenance and fast deployment, although some larger ballistic missiles use liquid fuel rockets. Jet engines are generally used in cruise missiles, most commonly of the turbojet type, due to its relative simplicity and low frontal area. Turbofans andramjets are the only other common forms of jet engine propulsion, although any type of engine could theoretically be used. Missiles often have multiple engine stages, particularly in those launched from the surface. These stages may all be of similar types or may include a mix of engine types - for example, surface-launched cruise missiles often have a rocket booster for launching and a jet engine for sustained flight.
Some missiles may have additional propulsion from another source at launch; for example the V1 was launched by a catapult and the MGM-51 was fired out of a tank gun (using a smaller charge than would be used for a shell).

[edit]Warhead

Missiles generally have one or more explosive warheads, although other weapon types may also be used. The warhead or warheads of a missile provides its primary destructive power (many missiles have extensive secondary destructive power due to the high kinetic energy of the weapon and unburnt fuel that may be on board). Warheads are most commonly of the high explosivetype, often employing shaped charges to exploit the accuracy of a guided weapon to destroy hardened targets. Other warhead types include submunitions, incendiaries, nuclear weapons,chemical, biological or radiological weapons or kinetic energy penetrators. Warheadless missiles are often used for testing and training purposes.

[edit]Basic roles

Missiles are generally categorized by their launch platform and intended target. In broadest terms, these will either be surface (ground or water) or air, and then sub-categorized by range and the exact target type (such as anti-tank or anti-ship). Many weapons are designed to be launched from both surface or the air, and a few are designed to attack either surface or air targets (such as the ADATS missile). Most weapons require some modification in order to be launched from the air or surface, such as adding boosters to the surface-launched version.

[edit]Surface-to-Surface/Air-to-Surface

Main articles: Surface-to-surface missile and Air-to-surface missile

[edit]Ballistic

An R-36 ballistic missile launch at a Soviet silo
Main article: Ballistic missile
After the boost-stage, ballistic missiles follow a trajectory mainly determined by ballistics. The guidance is for relatively small deviations from that.
Ballistic missiles are largely used for land attack missions. Although normally associated with nuclear weapons, some conventionally armed ballistic missiles are in service, such as ATACMS. The V2 had demonstrated that a ballistic missile could deliver a warhead to a target city with no possibility of interception, and the introduction of nuclear weapons meant it could efficiently do damage when it arrived. The accuracy of these systems was fairly poor, but post-war development by most military forces improved the basic inertial platform concept to the point where it could be used as the guidance system on ICBMs flying thousands of kilometers. Today the ballistic missile represents the only strategic deterrent in most military forces, however some ballistic missiles are being adapted for conventional roles, such as the Russian Iskander or the Chinese DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. Ballistic missiles are primarily surface launched from mobile launchers, silos, ships or submarines, with air launch being theoretically possible with a weapon such as the cancelled Skybolt missile.
The Russian Topol M (SS-27 Sickle B) is the fastest (7,320 m/sec) missile currently in service[2]

[edit]Cruise missile

United States Tomahawk cruise missile
Main article: Cruise missile
The V1 had been successfully intercepted during World War II, but this did not make the cruise missile concept entirely useless. After the war, the US deployed a small number of nuclear-armed cruise missiles in Germany, but these were considered to be of limited usefulness. Continued research into much longer ranged and faster versions led to the US's Navaho missile, and its Soviet counterparts, the Burya and Buran cruise missile. However, these were rendered largely obsolete by the ICBM, and none were used operationally. Shorter-range developments have become widely used as highly accurate attack systems, such as the US Tomahawk missile, the Russian Kh-55 the German Taurus missile and the Pakistani Babur cruise missile.TheBrahMos cruise missile which is a joint venture between India and Russia.
Cruise missiles are generally associated with land attack operations, but also have an important role as anti-shipping weapons. They are primarily launched from air, sea or submarine platforms in both roles, although land based launchers also exist.

[edit]Anti-ship

The French Exocet missile in flight
Main article: Anti-ship missile
Another major German missile development project was the anti-shipping class (such as the Fritz X and Henschel Hs 293), intended to stop any attempt at a cross-channel invasion. However the British were able to render their systems useless by jamming their radios, and missiles with wire guidance were not ready by D-Day. After the war the anti-shipping class slowly developed, and became a major class in the 1960s with the introduction of the low-flying jet- or rocket-powered cruise missiles known as "sea-skimmers". These became famous during the Falklands War when an ArgentineExocet missile sank a Royal Navy destroyer.
A number of anti-submarine missiles also exist; these generally use the missile in order to deliver another weapon system such as a torpedo or depth charge to the location of the submarine, at which point the other weapon will conduct the underwater phase of the mission.

[edit]Anti-tank

U.S. Army soldiers firing an FGM-148 Javelin
Main article: Anti-tank guided missile
By the end of WWII all forces had widely introduced unguided rockets using HEAT warheads as their major anti-tank weapon (see Panzerfaust,Bazooka). However these had a limited useful range of a 100 m or so, and the Germans were looking to extend this with the use of a missile using wire guidance, the X-7. After the war this became a major design class in the later 1950s, and by the 1960s had developed into practically the only non-tank anti-tank system in general use. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, the 9M14 Malyutka (aka "Sagger") man-portable anti-tank missile proved potent against Israeli tanks. While other guidance systems have been tried, the basic reliability of wire-guidance means this will remain the primary means of controlling anti-tank missile in the near future. Anti tank missiles may be launched from aircraft, vehicles or by ground troops in the case of smaller weapons.

[edit]Surface-to-air

[edit]Anti-aircraft

MIM-104 Patriot missile being launched
Main article: Surface-to-air missile
By 1944 US and British air forces were sending huge air fleets over occupied Europe, increasing the pressure on the Luftwaffe day and night fighter forces. The Germans were keen to get some sort of useful ground-based anti-aircraft system into operation. Several systems were under development, but none had reached operational status before the war's end. The US Navy also started missile research to deal with the Kamikaze threat. By 1950 systems based on this early research started to reach operational service, including the US Army's Nike Ajax, the Navy's "3T's" (Talos, Terrier, Tartar), and soon followed by the Soviet S-25 Berkut and S-75 Dvina and French and British systems. Anti-aircraft weapons exist for virtually every possible launch platform, with surface-launched systems ranging from huge, self-propelled or ship-mounted launchers to man portable systems.

[edit]Anti-ballistic

Arrow missile
Main article: Anti-ballistic missile
Like most missiles, the Arrow missile, S-300, S-400, Advanced Air Defence and MIM-104 Patriot are for defense against short-range missiles and carry explosive warheads.
However, in the case of a large closing speed, a projectile without explosives is used, just a collision is sufficient to destroy the target. See Missile Defense Agency for the following systems being developed:

[edit]Air-to-air

Main article: Air-to-air missile
A F-22 Raptor fires an AIM-120 AMRAAM
Soviet RS-82 rockets were successfully tested in combat at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in 1939.
German experience in World War II demonstrated that destroying a large aircraft was quite difficult, and they had invested considerable effort into air-to-air missile systems to do this. Their Me-262's jets often carried R4M rockets, and other types of "bomber destroyer" aircraft had unguided rockets as well. In the post-war period the R4M served as the pattern for a number of similar systems, used by almost all interceptor aircraft during the 1940s and '50s. Lacking guidance systems, such rockets had to be carefully aimed at relatively close range to successfully hit the target. The US Navy and U.S. Air Force began deploying guided missiles in the early 1950s, most famous being the US Navy's AIM-9 Sidewinder and USAF's AIM-4 Falcon. These systems have continued to advance, and modern air warfare consists almost entirely of missile firing. In the Falklands War, less powerful British Harriers were able to defeat faster Argentinian opponents using AIM-9G missiles provided by the United States as the conflict began. The latest heat-seeking designs can lock onto a target from various angles, not just from behind, where the heat signature from the engines is strongest. Other types rely on radar guidance (either on-board or "painted" by the launching aircraft). Air to Air missiles also have a wide range of sizes, ranging from helicopter launched self-defense weapons with a range of a few kilometers, to long range weapons designed for interceptor aircraft such as the Vympel R-37.

[edit]Anti-satellite

ASM-135 ASAT missile launch in 1985
Main article: Anti-satellite weapon
In the 1950s and 1960s, Soviet designers started work on an anti-satellite weapon, called the "Istrebitel Sputnik", which meant literally, interceptor of satellites, or destroyer of satellites. After a lengthy development process of roughly 20 years, it was finally decided that testing of the Istrebitel Sputnik be canceled. This was when the U.S. started testing their own systems. The Brilliant Pebbles defense system proposed during the 1980s would have used kinetic energy collisions without explosives. Anti satellite weapons may be launched either by an aircraft or a surface platform, depending on the design. To date, only a few known tests have occurred.

[edit]See also

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