India and its scientists have the ability and the power to tackle any eventuality, including warfare, with guided missiles that could go from land-to-land, land-to-air and sea-to-air, said Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister G. Satheesh Reddy.
At the Council of Scientific and Industrial Rearch-National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI) here on Thursday, he said the country was second to none in its capabilities, during his Science Day lecture on ‘Missile Technologies’.
In what was clearly a fascinating journey, Mr. Satheesh outlined the country’s achievements, right upto Agni V, including the Nirbhay Mission - the Indian version of the Tomahawk missle with real-time embedded systems the size of a chip, like in the Brahmos. The successful launch of the Agni V had propelled India into its rightful place of prominence in the Inter-Continential Ballistic Missile space, he said.
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System used in missiles and tracking systems today was best-in-class, he said. The onboard computing system and tracking systems today were close to being just a small chip, with 925 pins and 65 nano-metres, the scientist told an audience comprising NGRI Director S. Chandrasekhar and Chief Scientist Shakeel Ahmed.
The scientist spoke of control actuation systems that included electro-pneumatic, electro-hydraulic, electro-mechanical versions and recalled how he was present at a half-a-dozen launches of the Prithvi missile and its advanced version Dhanush, that could be launched from a ship and came with a range of 350 miles. Radio-frequency seekers today had no antennae but only smart skins, he said, adding that electro-optical, infrared seekers were being used in the Nag anti-tank missile helped it hit the target.
School students listen
The eminent scientist had the rapt attention of school students in the audience when he spoke of how the Defence Research and Development Organisation was working on a two-layer ballistic system that could track an oncoming missile from the exo-atmosphere (40 km height and above) and endo-atmosphere (20 km) with a velocity of something like 2.5 km per second.
India could, in just two years, boast of an avionics system on a single module that could be embedded on a chip, he said, adding that considerable work was going on bio-sensors with which sea turtles moved and birds that flew from one continent to the other. “It is fascinating to note that sea turtles swim upto Wheeler Island around March/April, lay eggs and come back after a year to the exact location and likewise the birds that flew long distance and reached their destination with pin-point precision,” Mr. Satheesh Reddy said.
