Rocket Artillery Firepower Being Enhanced

Overall, it has been a mixed bag of success for the Indian Army’s Directorate of Field Artillery over the past decade. On one hand, it acquired strategic force multiplier capabilities (with rocket artillery assets) through its 333 (raised in June 1993 and commissioned in October 1995), 444 (raised in October 2003) and 555 Missile Groups (operational by January 2005), each equipped with a total of 60 liquid-fuelled, conventional warhead-armed, 150km-range surface-to-surface missiles, including reserve rounds) and is now raising its first of two Regiments of the 290km-range BrahMos supersonic, multi-role cruise missile (MRCM). The three Prithvi Missile Groups and the two BrahMos Regiments will form part of the ORBATs of the Indian Army’s two dedicated Artillery Divisions—40 and 41.
Each Prithvi Missile Group is made up of two Sub-Groups that in turn are made up of two Troops. Each Troop has two SS-150 mobile autonomous launchers (MAL). Thus, each Group has 8 launchers and almost 24 support vehicles, with the number of MALs expected to treble to 24 in future. However, in times of hostilities, the missiles will be pre-fuelled (the shelf-life of the liquid propellant is 10 years) before being deployed to their launch sites where only three vehicles—the MAL, power supply vehicle and one Mobile Command Post (MCP)—would be employed. The Prithvi SS-150—officially described by the DRDO as a tactical surface-to-surface missile and by the Army as a battlefield support missile--is fuelled by a liquid propellant (a 50:50 combination of isomeric xylidine and trimethlyamine), with the oxidizer being inhibited red fuming nitric acid (IRFNA). The propellant has a 260 specific impulse and was specified by the Army, which required a range fluctuation between 40km and 150km and this could only have been achieved by a variable total impulse best generated by liquid propellants. When it achieved operational status, the SS-150, equipped with a strap-down inertial navigation system, had a CEP of 300 metres, which is now being brought down to 30 metres through the adoption of a ring laser gyro-based inertial navigation system coupled to a GPS receiver utilising PY code. Warhead options for the SS-150 include the standard high-explosive unitary warhead (weighing 1,000kg), pre-fragmented, and cluster munitions, an incendiary warhead, and fuel air explosive. Following its launch, the SS-150’s semi-ballistic trajectory will take it to an altitude of 30km following which it will adopt either a steep ballistic trajectory at nearly 80 degrees, or a lift-augmented descent trajectory. As far as the latter option goes, there are six flight-path variations available (which are pre-programmed prior to launch) in order to defeat or confuse anti-ballistic missile defences. It is evident from all this that the SS-150 will, during, hostilities, be employed for massed but effects-based fire assaults against largely static targets like troop concentrations, plus railroad and POL junctions, this being done in order to severely degrade the hostile force’s theatre-level and strategic reserves before they could become effective in the forward tactical battle areas. However, there is currently one critical problem that prevents the SS-150 from being optimally employed: the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not yet answered with clarity the question of whether the SS-150 will carry only conventional warheads or not. Consequently and strangely, the three SS-150 Missile groups remain under the administrative control only of the Army HQ’s Directorate of Field Artillery, but operational command-and-control over them is exercised only by the C-in-C of the Strategic Forces Command (SFC). It is this bizarre state of affairs that requires urgent rectification if the SS-150 is to be employed with devastating and decisive effect against any potential adversary. What has to be recognised is that the SS-150 never had and still has no strategic significance whatsoever as a deterrent in the nuclear context, and must therefore be allowed to become an integral part of the conventional ORBAT of operational theatre commanders, which will enable them to score over their opponents at the operational level.
As for the BrahMos MRCM, the Army plans to employ them for pin-point decapitating fire assaults against formational-level field HQs as well as pre-selected transportation nodes (of both external and interior lines of communications) and probable ballistic/cruise missile launch sites of the adversary. Each BrahMos Regiment will include three Batteries each with four MALs (each with three vertically-launched missiles), three MCPs, one Fixed Command Centre, nine missile replenishment vehicles, and three maintenance support vehicles, and will enable the Army to engage targets for its deep battles over a frontage of 600km. Each MAL carries three vertically-launched BrahMos missiles, and covers a frontage of 600km. The missile launcher’s launch beam is articulated to make the launch cannisters vertical through a high-pressure hydraulic system controlled by an electronic controller. The COTS-based launcher control system (LCS) functions in coordination with the MCP-mounted fire-control system (FCS) and a mast-mounted millimeter-wave line-of-sight secure communications system. Each MAL has a containerised power supply system consisting of 40kVA diesel generating set and 40kVA PTO alternator, a 2 x 7.5kVA single-phase UPS with integral battery bank for 15 minutes back-up power generation, and a 5kVA single-phase diesel generator. The BrahMos MRCM is 9 metres tall, weighs three metric tonnes, and carries a conventional 300kg warhead with 90kg TNT content. It has two stages—a solid propellant booster stage, and a ramjet-powered second stage using liquid propellant. Compared to existing subsonic cruise missiles, the BrahMos is superior by a factor of 3 in terms of velocity, 3 times better in flight range, 4 times better in terms of seeker range, and 9 times superior in terms of kill energy. Billed as a weapon unleashing technological asymmetry in the battlespace, this MRCM is capable of tilting the balance of war in favour of the possessor who can use it imaginatively and decisively. In order to fully optimise the BrahMos MRCM’s operational parameters and ensure synchronised battlespace management in a network-centric warfare environment, the Army is now in the process of fielding the indigenous Command-level Battlespace Surveillance System; Corps-level ‘Shakti’ Artillery Command, Control & Communications System; Command Information Decision Support System (CIDSS) and its related Division-level Force Multiplier Command Post (FMCP) and Brigade-level Mobile Communications Terminal (MCT); all of which will be used for target acquisition, designation and engagement under near-real-time conditions by the BrahMos MRCM. This in turn will enable a single BrahMos Regiment to launch 36 MRCMs to successfully engage critical targets with pinpoint accuracy within a matter of seconds. Each missile can be pre-programmed to fly multiple flight trajectories through up to eight waypoints permitting turns up to 80 degrees, traverse any type of terrain from sea-level to high altitude, and engage targets whether on forward or reverse slopes of mountains and valleys. The Army on June 21 last year officially received its first Battery of the BrahMos MRCM in the presence of Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, the then President and Commander-in-Chief of India’s armed forces; Defence Minister Arakkaparambil Kurian Antony; and Gen Joginder Jaswant Singh, the then Chief of the Army Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. In all, the IA will possess a total of some 250 land-attack variants of the BrahMos MRCMs, including war wastage reserves, by 2017. It was on February 3, 2005 that the Government of India’s Cabinet Committee on National Security had approved the Army’s plans to raise the first of three Regiments of the BrahMos’ MRCM as part of the 40th and 41st Artillery Divisions in the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan periods (2002-2007 and 2008-2013). For series-producing the MRCM, the sprawling BrahMos Integration Complex (BIC) in Hyderabad was commissioned in early 2004. The BIC today contains dedicated facilities such as standby generators; compressed air facility; inward inspection block; storage facilities for mechanical, electrical and electronic systems, bonded stores fuel filling area, magazine storage areas for propulsion systems and explosive devices, ultrasonic testing and sub-system test facilities, machining shop, and precision co-curing/autoclave facilities. BrahMos Aerospace has created a consortium of 20 Indian and 30 Russian industries since 2002 to undertake production of the MRCM’s intricate precision components and subassemblies, which number more than 2,000. The Indian companies include private and public sector companies, such as Larsen & Toubro, Godrej & Boyce, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, KELTECH and Electronics Corp of India Ltd. While the Indian firms are providing the MRCM’s airframe, launch tubes, wheeled MALs and MCPs, digitised inertial navigation and flight control systems, fire-control system, imaging infra-red seeker, secure two-way data links, and mission software, Russian companies like NPO Mashinostroyenia and GRANIT Central Scientific Research Institute are providing the liquid-fuel ramjet engine, and the SGH active radar seeker for the missile’s anti-ship variant. All these components and sub-systems are finally installed and integrated at the BIC.
In addition to the SS-150 and BrahMos, the Army is also expediting the induction of multi-barrel rocket launchers (MBRL) like the 9K58 Smerch-M. Deliveries of the first of two Regiments of the 12-tube 300mm, 90km-range MBRL, comprising 36 launch vehicles, were completed last June by Russia’s SPLAV State Research and Production Enterprise, and the procurement of another 18 follow-on 9K58 Smerch-Ms was sanctioned late last month. Deliveries of all 12 THALESRaytheon Corp-built AN/TPQ-37(V)1 Firefinder weapons locating radars worth $142.4 million (Rs9.5 billion) were completed in September 2005. Deliveries of the first 24 of up to 40 weapons locating radars (developed by the DRDO and being built by Bharat Electronics Ltd) will commence by 2010.—Prasun K. Sengupta