Indigenous Missiles (Air Defence) At A Glance

Indigenous air defence missiles  include Akash, AAD, PAD, PDV, Maitri and Barak 8.Surface to air missile is also called as SAM.We are  still behind many countries like US, UK, Russia,France and also from china in the development of sophisticated  SAMs, but the success of Akash missile program gave DRDO the confidence to build the sophisticated SAMs.
                there are some images of Indian sams
  
                       Akash Missile
 
                          Advance Air Defence (AAD)


     
          PDV Missile                                       Barak 8


               SR sam (MAITRI)

Akash Missile

Design:

                                          
                         Akash missile has four clipped triangular wings are attached to the mid body of the missile.these four wings control its yaw and pitch of the missile.It has four ducts for its engine in the mid-body as you can see in the above image.It has four clipped delta wing to control the roll of the missile.
Propulsion: Akash uses indigenous integrated solid state ramjet engine for its propulsion.Ramjet engine allows Akash missile to goes up to 2.5 Mach speed, it also provides acceleration whole path until the interception.The whole way thrust ensures higher manoeuvrable compared to rocket-propelled SAMs like S 300, Patriot etc.

 Guidance: Akash missile uses command guidance provided by its fire control radar.

     Its fire control radar is Rajendra. Rajendra is  a phased array radar which has a range of 60 km. It can track 64 targets and engage 4 simultaneously in ripple mode.This radar provided tracking to interception information through a data link to the missile.It has also a good ECCM feature which allow to work in highest jamming environment .this is being produced by the BEL.
Accuracy: Akash missile has very high single shot kill probability around 88%.If two missile are fired in ripple mode then its kill probability will be around 98.5%.
                   Akash is a very decent sam and it costs half of the comparable systems around the globe, it is being produced by BDL for IAF and for IA will start soon.its mk2 version is also being developed by DRDO and thus making this missile a complete success.
  Video link for Akash missile test

BMD phase 1:

                Our  ballistic missile defence system (BMD) is a two-tier system, which include an

exo-atmospheric interceptor missile and an endo-atmospheric.this program started in 1999 due to the

Pakistani nukes carrying ballistic missiles and also due to our no first use of its nuke policy.

 Advanced Air Defence (AAD): 

                       AAD is the endo-atmospheric missile of the BMD system.It is a very manoeuvrable compare to exo-atmospheric version.it can intercept ballistic missile of 2000 km range at an altitude of 30km. Its  fire control radar is provided by the Thales of France. the radar is aesa and DRDO program to fit into its BMD program.
                           AAD missile use drdo developed inertial navigation system and midcourse guidance by the fire control radar.It use an active radar seeker for terminal navigation or end game.it use single stage solid state rocket propulsion.It is very reliable because it had intercepted the target without any failure in the past tests.

Prithvi Air Defence(PAD):

PAD is a two stage exo-atmospheric anti-ballistic missile.It uses solid state propellant  in fist stage and in second it uses liquid propellant. It is capable of intercepting the ballistic missile of the class of 2000 km range at an altitude of 80 km. 

                Its fire control radar is long-range tracking radar( LRTR) used in the green pine system of Israel, its software is developed by drdo and named as Swordfish .the radar act as tracking and fire control system.it can track up to 600 km.PAD uses same navigation and seeker that is used in 

AAD.

           Let's talk about the whole of the BMD system, the interception of the ballistic missile require network-centric control centre connected to spy satellite and an autonomous interception.All the required technology is developed by DRDO.

Barak 8: 

 Barak 8 is a joint development venture between DRDO and IAI.It is a light weight medium range surface to air missile of range 70 km.It can destroy enemy missile, low altitude flying cruise missiles,
aircraft at long ranges.It uses dual pulse solid state motor developed by drdo.Its fire control radar is
MFstar radar developed by Elta of Israel.It has the two-way data link for mid-course update. At terminal
stage it uses another motor and also activates its own seeker.It is highly manoeuvrable in the terminal phase.
            Navy calls the Barak 8 as lr-sam .navy is planning to install it to Kolkata class destroyer,P15b (Visakhapatnam class),P17a and also on Ins Vikrant .this missile will act as backbone of Indian navy air defence warships.Indian air force also wants to order some barak 8 sam launchers to protect its assets.

TEJAS : THE PRIDE OF INDIA

Tejas is compound tailless delta wing multirole Indian fighter aircraft.
It is designed and developed by DRDO aeronautics cluster ADA(aeronautical development agency) and being produced by Hindustan aeronautics limited as per its initial operational clearance configuration.
TEJAS  AS THE PRIDE OF INDIA: I love this plane not because it is beautiful, but because it is Indian (designed and developed in India), the first plane which is truly designed by Indian.It  is very light and small.
It has been tested in harsh Indian condition and also proved its capability in Iron Fist, Aero India 2013
and by taking off from SBTF facility, Goa. IAF never supported fully this Desi bird.As it is first Indian combat aircraft it has some flaws, but these can be eliminated in the mid-life upgrade.
It has completed its IOC tests and near to get FOC, till now Indian Air force has ordered only 40 plane which is very less than what it should be as IAF need about 400 light weight single engine fighter.

DESIGN: Tejas is designed along the single engine, unstable tailless compound delta wing configuration.
here is the orthographic of Tejas......

As it is unstable in needs to makes stable which is done by flight control computer.As we read "it is unstable " one question arises why it is so?,what is the advantage?how does it fly smoothly as we know?

in now days combat aircraft must be highly maneuverable aircraft for air to air combat.In your views which are more maneuverable a stable car or an unstable bike , which can turn faster? the answer is bike.that is why Tejas is made astable.

     Tejas flight control system is quadruplex digital fly by wire(fbw) system.Fly by wire means its actuators which control the control surface movement is controlled by electronic signals, not by mechanical means. the fbw software is made by national CLAW team and was validated, which was a big achievement.Till now Tejas had completed as more as 2800 flights without any accident , this proves how reliable its fbw system is.
     Compound delta wing produces vortex as same as close coupled canard in the Gripen at a high angle of attack (AOA).Tejas fbw system allows it  to go up to 28-degree angle of attack as per ADA.it can
go to 35-degree AOA without its control surfaces going to stall.
 ENGINE: Tejas use American GE F404 IN 20 engine.it is a low bypass turbofan engine.
The specification of the engine is as follow
Dry thrust: 53.9 kN
Thrust with afterburner(wet thrust): 89.8 kN
     With this engine Tejas has 1.07 thrust to weight ratio which is best in its class.Due to its high thrust to weight ratio and low wing loading it has high instantaneous turn rate and sustained turn rate.Its high ITR provide an opportunity  to get a first lock and hence the first attack.

ARMAMENT: Tejas has 7 hard points  for weapons and one for targeting pod like lightning targeting pod.

Tejas can carry 3.5 ton of weapons on its 8 hard points.the configuration of weapon is shown in above image.It can carry 1250 litre on its two inner sides of hard point on the wing and can carry 750 litres of fuel on centerline  hard point.Tejas external hard points is use to carry two high off bore sight R 73 missile, which has a range of 35 km and it uses IR sensor.R 73 is main close combat missile of Tejas.
Derby and Python will be integrated on Tejas as beyond visual range missile (WVR).The Astra missile will also be integrated on Tejas. As Tejas is a multi-role fighter it can carry the iron bomb, laser guide bomb(LGB) and anti-ship missile also.Tejas main BVR missile will be I-Derby ER  which has range excess of 100 km.
AVIONICS: Tejas has all glass cockpit and it has also night vision compatible.It has multi-function display for showing information, head up display(hud) for displaying important information it allows
pilot to fly without any need for seeing around in cockpit.tejas has an electronic warfare suit for better survivability.It includes radar warning receiver, automatic flare and chaff launcher.In future, it may be outfitted with the radar jammer also.
               Tejas has a multi-mode radar (MMR) which is developed from elta m2032 radar.the radar antenna is indigenous but is processing  end is developed by  Israel.its range is said to be about 100km for fighter size aircraft(RCS of 5m2).The radar has sub air to air mode , air to the ground mode or sar mapping mode and air to sea mode.it can track sea targets from 300km away.
RANGE:  Tejas is lightweight fighter its  so combat radius is little less than medium weight fighter aircraft.
                 combat radius :700 km (approx)
                 ferry range: 3000km

LCA NAVY: N- LCA:
       
There is a separate program along with the IAF Tejas to develop a naval carrier-borne fighter on the basis of the Tejas platform. It has a stronger landing gear for carrier operation.it has leading edge vortex controller (LEVCON),it helps naval Tejas for better low-speed handling and , approach speed and sink rate for arrested landing.there is plan for 5 naval prototypes out of which 3 will be mk1 and two mk2.NP1 had taken off from shore-based test facility , Goa last year end.with that event India becomes one of the elite countries to develop its indigenous carrier-borne fighter.

naval prototype 2(single seater)

                                           

                                                                    NP1 taking off from SBTF, Goa
                                    

video of the first flight of Tejas np1 from SBTF  

 TEJAS MK 1 P (mk 1.5):-

HAL has purposed air force with an improved mk1 of Tejas with improved avionics. According to HAL this version may be available for production from 2017 , this version will have downscaled 

      elta m 2052 radar and electronic warfare suit which is being developed for the Tejas mark 2. these upgrade will make Tejas best BVR fighter plane in  the lightweight category.