China test fires anti Satellite missile, India yet to Develop

China test fires anti Satellite missile, India yet to Develop

The Long March 11 Rocket with Dong Neng Kill Vehicle

   China successfully carried out another anti satellite missile test on Oct 30, and they officially acknowledged about the tests only after some days when US publishes about the Chinese missile launch. Two independent Chinese officials from Military and space program confirm the test and said it's a anti ballistic missile to counter enemy ballistic missiles not a anti satellite system. Sources say the missile did reached at the altitude of some 18,000 miles from earth, where most of the Navigational and intelligence satellites orbiting.

    China said it's a new system to evaluate the mid course interception of ballistic missile, similarly  to the American THAAD missile defense system. China did have two Anti satellite missile's SC 19 and DN 3, First one is used for destroying sub orbiting small SAR satellites, and the DN 3 used for destroying spy satellites and Navigational satellites in high orbit. The SC 19 already operational while DN 3 become operational before 2020. China conducting more tests to evaluate the operational capability of the missile.

     China actively interested in space based warfare, where both Russians and Americans agreed to limit their development in ASAT Technology. China testing anti satellite missile from 2007, in the first test they successfully destroyed a sub orbiting weather satellite. The test actually shocked the US and the Russians, The destruction caused severe problems to other satellite's orbiting at the same altitude. US Russia and many nations concerned about the debris of the satellites which poses threat to manned International Space station.

    China conducted more tests later years, So far China successfully conducted six anti satellite missiles, which is the known number in public medium, US is the only nation who has many systems to track each and every ballistic missiles conducted by any nation in the world. China conducted last test from Korla missile test complex in west China close to Mongolia.

     India operates long range tracking Radar which can track ballistic missile as far as some 2000 Kilo meters, However China conducted this test far from that range. Also it's hard to detect a anti satellite missile, because it hits the target at the space not in the land. The recent test shows Chinese capability of striking satellites anywhere in the orbit. which means during any war escalation against China, they will target Indian military satellites first to blind Indian defense assets.

DF 21 A Ballistic missile modified into SC 19 for ASAT missions

    Wikileaks once quoted that US, India and some other Asian nations issued protests to Chinese Anti satellite test when they conducted a successful anti satellite missile test in January 2010. The missile tests conducted using the SC 19 Space Rocket who carries the hit to kill vehicle to destroy sub orbiting satellite targets. Even after, China conducted more than four successful tests.

     India on other side yet to test fire a ASAT missile, It's reported by DRDO's director general VK Saraswat during an seminar in IIT Bombay, that India developing a atmospheric kill vehicle which will be used in modified Agni missiles to act as a sub orbital Anti satellite missile. So far there is no clear progress in the missile program.

    The Agni missiles has don't have enough range to fly much height to meet the Satellites, where most of the satellites placed well above than 10,000 kilometers from earth. While Agni missiles can go as much as height of some 1000 kilometers only, It's reported that modified Agni variant of ASAT missile can go over 3000 kilometers to perform sub orbit SAR satellite destruction missions.

    However this will not makes sense, while most of the Chinese Navigational Satellites like Beidou and other military and spy satellites fly well above than 15,000 miles above the earth's atmosphere, If India tries to shoot down any Chinese sub orbiting commercial satellites, then China will brings down entire Indian Satellites orbiting in the space.

    For the above some reasons, India must project their ambition to develop a real anti satellite missile rather than named ASAT missile. While the five nation council in UN, Seriously discussing about banning anti satellite missile test and Hyper sonic missile test, once they matured in these kind of advanced technologies. So India must accelerate those Hyper sonic and Anti satellite project before the International ban applied on those kind of tests.

Is that so simple Anti Satellite Missile

Is that so simple Anti Satellite Missile

   Recently some Indian media sounded about the DRDO's path finding of developing Anti satellite missile using modified Agni 5 missile, and thinks it's very easy to achieve such capability, currently only two countries tested, and some others also have such capability, India started it's anti satellite project early 2010, so far no concrete results, there is several kind of anti satellite mechanism, DRDO follows ground based ballistic missiles as it's entry towards anti satellite capability,

   There is very less probability of achieving a satellite kill using ground based ballistic missile, because they were positioned in far high altitude and travel very high speed, the earth rotation also pose heavy resistance during the interception, one more is the satellite is relatively very small in size, and it's very difficult to spot it and direct the missile steer towards the target, mostly the ballistic missile can go up to the height of some 600 to 1000 km, where the low orbital mini satellites positioned some 1500 kilometers above,

    With this range one can attack satellites used for communication and Satellite based SAR systems, however there is less chance or only science fiction that destroying a navigational or X Band communication satellites, which are placed at some 20,000 kilometers above from the sea level, India's long range Missile Agni 5 reached the height of some 600 kilometers during the last test, modifying the Agni to reach 1000 to 1500 is possible, however the satellite tracking and using the Kill vehicle is most complex technology,

    Most military satellites can rotate the earth at the speed of some 10,000 kilometers per hour, It's very hard to maneuver the  Ballistic missile to target the Satellite, The need of Kill vehicle can be used, the Kill vehicle act as a robot that can strike the Target once it was launched from the missile near to the Satellite for high probability kill, most of the Nations uses Kill vehicles, the same tech used in ballistic missile interceptions,

    Americans are the masters in Space tech no doubt, However in 2007 China successfully carried out a anti satellite missile test, by destroying his own satellite by using their Ballistic missile, the missile was a modified DF 21 short range ballistic missile, modified with a kill vehicle which incorporated imaging infrared seeker IIR, the same seeker used in most missiles to destroy enemy fighter jets. the target satellite orbits some 1000 km above from the sea level, and the kill vehicle performed direct hit, the kill vehicle accelerated his speed at some 25,000 kilometer per hour to kill the satellite, Chinese is the second country who tested such capability,

    There is a another simple method where most foreign nations using is, making their own satellite as a suicide attacker to attack enemy satellite, a better kill probability than all others, Russians, Chinese and many more tried this, while Russia has some 1000 satellites in the Orbit where China has some 100 and India has some fifty, the collision successful means the strike is good, if no means the attack satellite may be out of control, once it deviated from the designated path, India confirmed that they will not do such actions in the Space, there is some international treaty  also there to prevent such suicide attacks in the space.

    Most technologically developed nations like America and Israel uses it's fighter based missile to attack enemy satellites the same method also can be used to launch Satellites in the orbit, so far only Israel and the US has such most critical technology, the Americans already demonstrated it earlier 1990, and It's believed that Israel also has such technologies, once the Russians plans to use their MiG 31 armed with long range high speed missiles to attack mini satellites in the space, however they dropped the plan and moved into space based defense systems. and the Israeli's and Americans used the F 15, two years ago Israel launched a Ballistic Rocket using it's fighter jets, whose actual target or mission information's are highly classified, and there is no way or needs more than a decades to create such technology in India,

   Satellite based weapon is something like Armed Satellites which have Missiles or laser cannon's to destroy the enemy satellite's in the orbit, the known space based weaponizing issue, however it's believed nations like P5 already deployed such satellites in the space armed with weapons, this is the most trusted technology, where your own satellite can launch missile whenever it required, it can be deployed anywhere in the orbit, even can capable to destroy enemy navigational satellite's too, while India need decades to catch up such technologies,

   India may fast track the Agni based Missile for ASAT capability, that can be enough to keep low level ASAT deterrence against Chinese.      

Why India refused to buy the MiG 31

Why India refused to buy the MiG 31

    The Indian Air force used the MiG 25 long Range Interceptor/Reconnaissance planes to gather intelligence and take photographs of enemy installations, flying very high and speed MiG 25 has no other competitor in South Asia, During the Kargil war IAF used the MiG 25 to gather intelligence over  Pakistani soil and Take as many as photos about their Strategic Locations, while PAF has no Aircraft who can match the speed and Altitude of Mig 25,

    After 2006, with the arrival of remote sensing satellites and synthetic aperture Radar, IAF decommissions all the MiG 25, that time IAF had Seven MiG 25, while one was crashed, After the retirement, The Russians offered more advanced long range Interceptor MiG 31 along with ultra long range missiles, The Indian Government also accepts the Russians offer and asked the IAF to check the deal, But IAF eventually rejected the deal, and moved with repeated number of Su 30 MKI orders,

    The IAF, takes a good decision, same like all other times, because of the usage and current scenario MiG 31 is not required, since rival forces have good fighters and missiles to counter the MiG 31, The MIG 31 is absolutely a good platform, no question, However it's just a Interceptor, While most of the Pakistani and Chinese Fighters can be countered very easily by the Sukohi's and ground based missile systems, the Pakistani F 16 Block 52 armed with AIM 120 AMRAAM can easily chase the MiG 31 and it down, the same goes for China with Su 30 MK with R 77 missiles can easily kills the MiG 31,   unlike Russia, They need to engage large number of NATO planes and High flying Reconnaissance drones, with the long range Air to Air missiles, and High altitude of  flight, The MiG 35 can easily shoot down almost all kind of recon drones and other recon platforms like AEWCS and U 2 Spy plane.

    The Interesting matter is because of the R 33 Long range radar guided missile, The MiG 31 can able to destroy any long range US made Bombers, While US has comes with large number of Bomber fleet, The Russians found a Long range Radar guided missile to counter them, The High power Zalson Phased Array Radar in the MiG 31 can easily tracks and guide missiles over 300 kilometers, they demonstrated the capabilities by destroying a cruise missile using the R 33 Zalson combo, the same can be used for destroying enemy satellites too,

   But so far the ASAT capabilities  not been tested, But it's clear during warfare the Russians could use the R 33 missiles to kill the satellites, However it's hard to identify the Enemy satellites in the space, by using the Zalson, those satellites also travel much higher speed, making difficult to track and lock, however the R 33 can reach the 300 Kilometers in just 150 second, The average speed of more than 4.5 mach,

    In terms of India, The MiG 31 can be used against the Chinese H 6 bomber fleet and long range    cargo planes, But the same can be done by using the Su 30 MKI with R 77 combo, the R 77 missile can strike targets far 100 kilometers, however the MiG 31 with R 33 combo is best compared to Su 30 in terms of Interception, but the IAF need the Su 30 as a Swing role, like multiple Air superiority missions.

   However the main aspect is Currently most Air forces has good electronic attack capability, that can easily spoof radar guided missiles, the same will increases when it comes to long range, because of long range the missiles data link can be easily interrupted by the Fighters Defensive systems, Even those American bombers are equipped by larger sensors and defensive systems, meanwhile the same not applied to the Chinese H 6 bombers, Chinese are new to electronic attack, 

   The MiG 31's relies on it's flying speed and Altitude, to evade from enemy missiles and Anti aircraft missiles, But currently most of the fighters comes with high speed Missiles to engage threats at much higher altitude and speed,

   Also during the Indian terms the MiG 25 suffered lack of spare parts, makes only less number of Planes makes airborne, even at the same time Soviet and Russian Forces used more than thousands of such planes in its inventory,

   However IAF takes a good decision by ordering more number of Su 30 MKI to sticks with single platform, if they selects the MiG 31, they have to make another ground for newer platform, even now IAF struggling with many models of Fighters because of logistics and spare parts issue.

The Monster Agni 6

The Guardian Agni 6 

Artistic representation of Agni 6 with MIRV warheads

         An ambitious project of the DRDO is ready to take wings and with it the deterrence factor of India will reach new heights. With the country's sphere of influence growing the then Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik pitched for a delivery system that could break the ‘regional context’ and thus began DRDO’s conquest for the Agni 6 program.   

      A potent weapon system is about to be developed by the DRDO which will deliver a death blow to the enemies thousands of kilometres away. DRDO is heading full steam ahead with the Agni program and the reliable delivery system will this time be witnessing some breakthrough advancements which will result in Agni 6 with a speculated range of 10,000 kilometres. 

     The Agni 6 will feature MIRV warheads, which is a first for the Indian forces. At the press of a button the destruction of the enemy is guaranteed for the missile carries a 3 tonne nuclear warhead which if denoted will annihilate the enemy and drive them back to Stone Age. With the MIRV’s the warheads can easily out manoeuvre the enemy BMD systems and equipped with chaff systems and ECM systems the interception of the missile will be extremely unlikely.  

         The success of Agni 5 paved the way for Agni 6 and DRDO is believed to have constituted the program from late 2009, for a ICBM providing ranges of 10000+ km. Mounted with six MIRV warheads, each capable of acquiring different targets, the missile can deliver either a conventional warhead or biological or nuclear warheads with pin point accuracy to the designated target.

       The missile will have a range of more than 10,000 kilometres and with this most of North America will come under the missile strike range. The missile will be an exo-atmospheric system and will make most of its flight in the space helping it to attain the required long range strike.  

          Agni6 completes most its flight in sub orbital trajectory which will help achieve the missile speed up to 6 kilometres per second. The Agni 6 is a three staged ballistic missile and will most probably be a solid propellant powered system. The first and the second stage will contain only the propulsion motors, the final and last stage will launch up to 10 MIRV and also decoy warheads. Agni 6 can carry warheads up to 3 tonnes and with the MIRV’s the missile system is surely a nightmare to the enemy.   

       A single missile can deliver enough fire power to the enemy territory to annihilate the country for years. The ABM shields will be a hindrance to the delivery system, China armed with the most advanced Russian developed S400 systems can counter this threat but with ten MIRV and decoy warheads hurtling the success rate of the S400 will reduce to a great extent and with repeated strikes the purpose will be served.

       Initially the existence of the Agni 6 program was never confirmed by DRDO nor had they declined the repeated reports circulating in the Media. But an expected breakthrough announcement came in May 2011 with the promotion of Shri Avinash Chander. A DRDO newsletter released read.

Chief Controller R&D (Missiles and Strategic Systems)

“ Shri Avinash Chander, Distinguished Scientist, Programme Director, SFD and Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory has been appointed as Chief Controller R&D (Missiles and Strategic Systems) wef 3 May 2011. He is an eminent scientist in the field of Missiles and is the Chief Designer of Long-range missile system, with specific contribution in Agni programme management, mission design, guidance, navigation, simulation and terminal guidance. He has unique achievement of delivering and deploying three long-range Agni missile weapon systems viz, A1, A2 and A3.





Presently, he is leading three major system developments; A2p, a technologically challenging state-of-the-art system; a 5,000 km canister-launched A5 system; and a 6000 km A6 system with multiple warheads (MIRV) capable of launching both from the ground and underwater. “

       Thus the Agni 6 program was confirmed and the any strategic developments before materializing has to be put up before the government and only after the consent of the CCS will the project progress forward.

     But some recent reports mentioned that India already started the Agni 6 works and already completed the design works and waiting for Govt authorization to start the Project, since DRDO needs govt authorization to materialize any Strategic developments.

          India being a volunteer for no first strike policy any missiles homed in silos and mobile launchers are always vulnerable and an attack by the adversary may disable these missiles. But serving the real purpose of a second strike is the SLBM’s or simply the submarine launched ballistic missiles. Miniaturized missile systems will be fitted on the follow on Arihant SSBN’s and with these submarines submerged and floating silently thousands of kilometres away will surely work as the best platform for second strike scenario. The SLBM’s will also counter the submarine and aircraft carrier threats posed by the Chinese and can fire at the target with pin point accuracy.

          The Agni 6 may very well be developed into a ASAT missile, which is designed to neutralize enemy satellites which circle the orbits designated around a country and can hamper the operations of our forces. The use of any space oriented weapons has been banned by the International community. America, China, Russia and French are believed to posses ASAT missiles and America is the only country to have actually tested an ASAT.

          India strictly follows a “No first use policy” for nuclear weapons and will only retaliate if attacked and will annihilate the adversary”. The Agni 6 missiles are bound to take India to an exclusive club of nations which operate ICBM’s with 10000 kms. India will join America, Russia, France, UK and China.  

 Editor Karthik Kakoor

Infograph of Agni 6

MIRVed ICBM Launching method

A thermonuclear Warhead