This exercise called 'Iron Fist 2016' also showcased the firing potential of country's highly versatile Tejas fighter aircraft or the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
PTI
By Pallava Bagla
POKHRAN: In the deserts of Pokhran, not far from the border with Pakistan the Indian Air Force (IAF) displayed its might, in less than four hours 181 aeroplanes bombed several targets. For the very first time in India's history indigenously made potent missiles like Akash and Astra were openly fired in front of a discerning audience.
This exercise called 'Iron Fist 2016' also showcased the firing potential of country's highly versatile Tejas fighter aircraft or the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). Sources in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) confirmed that this was the first time the Prime Minister and President of India were witnessing in front of their eyes the immense capability of these Indian made weapons platforms.
The DRDO once dubbed as the 'Defenceless Research and Dud Organisation' quietly celebrated the debut firing of its lead platforms in an open 'operational fire power demonstration' that was also beamed live all over the world and in front of defence attaches of the most powerful countries of the world. India's multi-role fighter jet Tejas showed its prowess by performing twin roles in the same sortie.
The 9800 kilogram supersonic plane first came and from high above the witnessing stand fired a laser guided bomb onto a target on the ground. Then it converted itself from a ground attack platform into an air-to-air combat mean machine. In the same flight the LCA fired a missile onto an aerial target. Technically, it fired a R-73E missile onto a simulated enemy plane.
The graceful LCA mostly designed in Bengaluru executed its roles with elegance, but subsequently there were reports that the bomb dropped by Tejas missed its target possibly because the fuse of the bomb miss-performed and to the naked eye it also seemed that the air-to-air missile fired by the LCA did not directly hit the 'flare' which was being used as simulated enemy war plane.
Though later, it was clarified that the R-73E missile did hit the target but since the flare is 'minuscule' compared to full-fledged enemy air plane it may have seemed to have gone awry. Any which ways the Indian plane that costs about Rs 200 crore a piece or about USD 28 million is a unique fighting machine. In comparison, the Rafale Jet costs upwards of Rs 1600 crore a piece.
Much has been written that the first sanction for the design of the LCA started in 1983 and by now as per a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India the Ministry of Defence has invested Rs 10,397 crores on this project. Despite this long gestation, the plane is considered the best in its class with the IAF hopefully going to induct these planes into the battle ready cadre this year. The IAF is already short of nine squadrons of fighter planes.
To some of the naysayers of Tejas a fact should be driven that it does take anywhere between 15-20 years to design a new fighter plane even by advanced countries that have serially produced fighter jets, for India this was really only a second venture albeit with a huge gap.
Recently the Tejas also had its first foreign debut when earlier this year when two planes flew to perform aerobatics at the Bahrain International Air Show essentially India expressing its desire that this 'made in India' plane could be exported if required by other countries.
Now well-meaning and knowledgeable defence experts are even questioning whether India really needs to go ahead and buy either 36 or the 126 'Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft' like the Rafale at all. The first 'request for proposal' was put out almost 15 years ago and till date the Indian Air Force and the Indian government have not really made up their minds on how to cross the last mile for this purchase.
Now that the LCA is almost near, the finish line it possibly makes sense to opt for an Indian made plane rather than depend on an expensive foreign vendor, even though the LCA comes with a third of the payload carrying capacity and a third of the range.
Many in the IAF who decry the delays in the making of the Tejas should also answer with parity the delays in simply buying off the shelf foreign fighter planes. If the need was so pressing to bridge, the gap for replacing the aging Mig-21's then why is the IAF and the government not able to make a decision for the last 15 years. May be now that both President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Narendra Modi have personally seen the Tejas platform fire ammunition last week an afterthought may occur and the local effort could just zoom past.
The DRDO also highlighted its ASTRA missile a beyond visual range air-to-air missile capable of engaging targets from anywhere between 20-80 kilometres. This missile was fired from a Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft and sources said it hit the target, but since it goes and strikes a target beyond the visual range there was no possibility of witnessing the hit.
This was the first time the DRDO publicly showed its advanced air-to-air missile, which is capable of undertaking as, claimed some manoeuvres at 40 G levels making it very versatile. This 3.8-meter length missile has been under development for ten years.
At Pokhran in a night, firing the IAF for the first time highlighted its recent indigenous acquisition the Akash Missile System. A single missile was fired from very close to place where the VIP stand and it left behind a smoke trail before disappearing after the imaginary enemy target in the night sky. According to DRDO which developed the Akash missile system it is a 'medium range surface to air missile with multi-target engagement capability.
It uses high-energy solid propellant for the booster and ram-rocket propulsion for the main phase. The propulsion system provides higher level of energy with minimum mass, compared to conventional solid/liquid rocket motor that has better performance with minimum weight of the missile. It has a dual mode guidance, initially on command mode from a phased array radar and later radar homing guidance with unique software developed for high accuracy.
The phased array radar provides capability for multiple target tracking and simultaneous deployment of missiles to attack four targets at the same time, in each battery. Multiple batteries constitute a group centre. The system is highly mobile.'
India has already developed under its Integrated Guided Missile Development Program missile like Prithvi, Agni, Trishul and Akash. Until date, only Akash has been fired in the presence of top dignitaries and as one DRDO official put 'it shows the high level of confidence the IAF is putting in the Akash missile system'.
The IAF has already ordered eight squadrons of the Akash missile system at a cost of over Rs 23,000 crores and reports suggest that the system has already been deployed Jorhat, Gwalior, Tejpur, Hashimara, and Pune. It is estimated that DRDO spent close to Rs 1000 crore in the R&D of this missile system. A comparable foreign system would be ten times more costly to purchase than the Indian made system.
According to estimates by the DRDO thanks to its contribution India's defence R&D today the country is just one of the 5 countries to have its own ballistic missile defence program; one of the 6 countries to have developed a nuclear- powered submarine; one of the 7 countries to have developed its own main battle tank and an indigenous 4th gen combat aircraft.
The production value of systems based on DRDO technologies that have been inducted and or approved for induction into services during the past decade (excluding strategic systems) stands at over Rs 1,70,000 crores.
It is not easy to do research and development of high-grade weapons systems and DRDO says often it is unfairly targeted of its delays and inefficiencies when actually the acquisitions lobby tries to scuttle local development. This showcasing of the missile systems and the Tejas plane at Pokhran in way suggests the coming of age of the 'made in India' platforms even as lobbies push for the 'make in India' effort. The difference is subtle but the implications huge especially in times of war.
PTI
