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The Big Story

November 29, 2010

The secret 'K' missile family

Sandeep Unnithan  November 20, 2010 | UPDATED 17:03 IST

 

In a dramatic breakthrough in its nuclear offensive capability, India has successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with an eventual range of 3,500 km. Tested secretly off Visakhapatnam in January this year, the 10-m long and 1.3-m wide missile emerged from a pontoon submerged 50 m underwater and breached the surface. Painted black and white so that it can be distinguished in water, it has passed a critical parameter.
Named after India's missile man, former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the nuclear-tipped K-4 is quite significant in a batch of new-generation counter-strike strategic missiles. The top secret indigenous "K" missiles are faster, lighter and stealthier. They also make India only the sixth country to develop undersea strategic missiles.

Inside the DRDO's Gen-Next stealthy strategic missiles Shaurya/K-15 /B-05 Range 750 km Weight of missile 10 tonnes Warhead 1 tonne length 10 m Status K-15/B-05 in series production. Land-based missile awaiting clearance.

K-4 Ballistic Missile Range 3,500 km Weight of missile 20 tonnes Warhead 1 tonne length 10 m Status Second test by January 2011. At least six more tests before induction by 2017. Future variants for larger nuclear submarines to be 2 m taller and have 5,000-km range.

Air-Launched Missile Range 200 km Weight of missile 2 tonne Warhead 500 kg length 4 m Status Hypersonic missile project called the Air Launched Article. Designed to fit under the belly of a Su-30MKI. First prototype by 2012.

A second firing, to be conducted off Visakhapatnam within two months, will revalidate a critical parameter-the ability of a 20-tonne projectile to withstand 50 kg of water pressure and eject from a submerged launcher before engaging its rocket booster. What makes an SLBM relevant in the Indian context is that it is part of the third leg of the nuclear deterrent (air and ground-launched weapons being the other two) and the ideal invulnerable second strike weapon stated in the nuclear doctrine. Defence officials say a long range SLBM like the K-4 will enable an Indian nuclear submarine lurking in the Bay of Bengal to target China and Pakistan simultaneously. Launched last year, India's first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine Arihant has been designed to carry four K-4s or 12 of the 750-km range K-15s.
DRDO officials say that the K-4 will be ready for induction before the end of the decade. This is because most technologies, including the sophisticated guidance packages, were already perfected while developing the shorter range K-15 SLBM. Defence officials, however, are cautious because despite a history of missile expertise, Russia has witnessed multiple failures of its new Bulava SLBM. In the works is an as yet unnamed longer-legged variant of the K-4 with a 5,000-km range. The 12-m long missile is meant to arm future nuclear submarines.
But while the DRDO parades its Agni and Prithvi missiles on Republic Day, it will not even acknowledge the existence of any of these "black projects� that have been cloaked under the Advanced Technology Vessel Project (ATV) that builds the Arihant class of nuclear submarines.

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East

Army commandos daring hostage rescue in Assam jungles

Sandeep Unnithan  New Delhi, October 9, 2010 | UPDATED 19:42 IST

 

A muffled thump of a silenced Micro-Uzi, bursts of AK-47 fire and a frantic jungle firefight. As Delhi warmed up to the spectacular opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games in New Delhi, the army's special forces raced through the jungles of Assam to perform a daring textbook rescue killing four cadres of the banned militant group the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and freeing a businessman they were holding hostage.

Location of the encounter between the army's special forces and militants of National Democratic Front of BodolandRescue missions are delicate surgeries meant to be carried out with scalpel-like precision to ensure that no harm comes to the hostages. This is usually far from the case as these missions end up as messy Pyrrhic victories with the hostages trapped between the good and the bad.
The story of this rare jungle rescue began on September 24 when the militants kidnapped Katan Nandi (36) son of a local grocery and retail store owner Parikshit Nandi in Dimu, Dhemaji district. They threatened to kill him unless a Rs.50 lakh ransom was paid up. Both the ULFA and the NDFB have accelerated kidnappings to generate funds for the groups with ransoms ranging from Rs.50 lakh to Rs.1 crore.
The Assam police dialed an Indian army's jungle warfare trained army Para-SF unit located nearby. On September 29, the unit began its task of locating the hostage. The unit was tipped off about the presence of the militants and began the grueling five-day task of collecting local intelligence.
Based on a local farmer's inputs that he had heard voices in the forest, they moved in to a search area of one kilometer by one kilometer. The wait paid off around noon on October 3. After a six-hour surveillance using spotter scopes, a group of four commandos located two suspicious individuals near the jungles north-west of Dhimaji district of Assam close to the Arunachal Pradesh border.
Weapons that were captured after the forest encounterThe commandos began stalking their quarry. The duo walked to a forest clearing where there were ten other militants. The hostage was bound and put at the foot of a tree while some of the militants sat playing cards, cooking food and waiting for their ransom to arrive.
It was noon but the thick and impenetrable forest cover made it seem like dusk. As the commandos crawled through the dense undergrowth, they were hit by stones and abuses in Assamese. The militants mistook them for foraging animals.
A few metres away, one of the crawling commandos ran into a startled sentry. Before he could reach for his weapon, the commando had whipped out his silenced Micro-Uzi and shot him in the head. The thump of the Uzi traveled across the jungle.
The firefight had begun. The militants began sheltering behind trees and blasting away with their AK-47s. The commandos were outnumbered. They could not use their force-multipliers, an 84mm Carl Gustav rocket launcher and 'Pika' machine gun, for fear of killing the hostage who was left under the tree. One of the commandos shouted out in Assamese asking the hostage not to run, he then darted forward and grabbed him by his legs and dragged him to safety.
The militants began pouring fire in his direction. One of the commandos carefully aimed and brought down two militants. A second commando shot one more militant and the rest fled into the undergrowth.
The end of a successful hostage rescue mission. The commandos then trekked for 24 hours through the jungle to reach the nearest road where a warm reception awaited them.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/army-commandos-daring-hostage-rescue-in-assam-jungles/1/115768.html