Best Indian Guided Missiles – Part 1

© Kashinath Deodhar, Sr Scientist (Retd) (Group Director, ARDE, DRDO, Pune)

Indian Guided Missiles: Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was known as Missile Man who successfully led the “Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (lGMDP), which was undertaken in 1982 by DRDO. Under the IGMDP five world-class missiles were developed viz. Prithvi, Akash, Trishul, Nag and Agni. After the successful development of these Indian missiles, DRDO got the technological foundation and full confidence to develop missiles to meet the current challenges. On 27 Mar 2019, it precisely shot down the “Micro Sat-R” satellite in the orbit at an altitude of 300 km which was revolving around the earth with a very high speed in the order of 7 to 10 km/s. named as “Mission SHAKTI”, and now India became the fourth country in the world to have this type of technology and showed space power to the world.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam started multiple projects simultaneously to develop the following types of Indian Guided Missiles missiles.

1. Short Range Surface to Surface Missile (SSM) ‘Prithvi’
2. Long Range Surface to Surface Missile (SSM) ‘Agni’
3. Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (SAM) ‘Akash’
4. Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SAM) ‘Trishul’
5. Anti-tank Guided Missile (ATGM) ‘Nag’

Every missile is of a different class and its roles are varied, its size, shape propulsions system, guidance system, flight and control Systems all are different and all are simultaneously being developed in the period from 1982 to 1997.

A missile can be defined as a weapon system which is an unmanned flying vehicle carrying a warhead to destroy the target having its own intelligence and guidance system inbuilt and has control over a flight system to follow a specific path to intercept the target, may be driven by a propulsion system to required speed and location.

Thus, an Indian Guided Missiles configuration is designed in such a way that the following technologies are required to be implemented effectively to give/achieve optimum results.

1. Airframe with the stabilization system
2. Propulsion technology
3. Guidance technology
4. Fight Control technology
5. Warhead technology
6. Air Frame with Stabilization Unit:

1. The Air frame of a missile

This is the main part which provides Strong support to all components, subassemblies and various assemblies from initiation point to target interception point during flight and provides required stiffness to withstand all aerodynamic forces exerted on it. The airframe should be light in weight. The stabilization unit is attached to the rear side with fins which provides the centre of pressure (CP point) in such a way that it always maintains the position from a point of the centre of gravity i.e. (CG point) such that the missile is always in a stable condition during the fight. At the nose portion, a radome of ogive shape was provided so that head drag should be as minimum as possible during the flight. It will also provide safety cover to seekers placed inside to keep an eye on the target.

2. Propulsion Technology:

For a missile to take up pounce upward the energy will be provided by propulsion technology. The chemical energy stored in the materials called fuels when reacts chemically in milliseconds with the oxidizing agent/oxygen, enormous energy will get released in the form of heat acting on high pressure and high-temperature gases generated. These propellant gases were directed to the exit path from the rear side of a missile through the nozzle. These gases will escape from the rear nozzle with supersonic speed and in turn, pushes the missile upward in the opposite direction of the plume. As we have studied Newton’s third law “every action has equal and opposite reaction” the missile will be flown toward a target and the power was given by the propulsion system. For missiles to travel from launcher to target there are two phases of the propulsion system. During, the start the initial thrust required is very high, hence, generally bigger missiles or tactical missiles have ‘booster motors’ to boost in the initial phase. After achieving sufficient height and speed boosters get consumed and will be detached from the missile which were discarded and the missile taken forward by a ‘Sustainer Motor’ which will continue till the interception with the target. During the boost phase propulsion system provides a high level of missile acceleration over a short period of time. Thereafter the purpose of the sustainer is to maintain the missile at the desired velocity for a majority of the remaining missile flight. Whether to use all boost-sustain or all sustain propulsion systems may be selected as per requirements and type of missile.

Booster motors are typically solid propellant motors and sustainers will be of solid propellant or liquid or a jet engine. In modern days some new missiles are using ramjet rockets or scramjet rockets for propulsion. In all the cases, the required oxygen to fully burn the fuel is built in and does not depend on atmospheric oxygen.

3. Guidance Technology:

This is considered the brain of the missile, a very important contribution to missile performance. This system provides steering commands to fly to a successful interception of the target. To accomplish the task, the guidance system needs to perform seeker stabilization, large acquisition, tracking and steering signals generation.

The sensors mounted in a gimbal system are attached to a missile body to isolate errors due to body motion. These are using the closed-loop control system. Sensor motion is sensed by a rate gyroscope used to generate feedback to compensate for the body motion. The steering commands are generated through guidance law which uses information available from sensor signal processors such as line-of-sight (LOS), rate, closing velocity etc. Steering commands generated by the guidance system are fed to the lateral autopilots.

4. Flight Control Technology:

The function of a flight control system is to provide a stable, controlled and responsive flight of missiles, which is achieved by controlling airframe motions using roll, pitch and yaw autopilots. These are automatic feedback control systems, by controlling the motions through control surfaces like wings, tail, fins and canards.

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Best Indian Guided Missiles missiles.

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