New Dehli: The Indian Army has tested an advanced version of the 290km BrahMos land-attack supersonic cruise missile, which has “steep dive capabilities” to take out targets hidden behind mountain ranges.
“The missile was tested in the eastern sector for a distance over 200km. The test has once again established the missile as an incredibly lethal weapon with pinpoint accuracy to take on enemy targets anywhere,” BrahMos chief Sudhir Mishra said.
Developed jointly by India and Russia, the missile flies at Mach 2.8 or almost three times the speed of sound. From 2007 onwards, the Indian Army has progressively inducted two regiments of BrahMos Block-I and II missiles developed to hit a specific small target with a low radar cross-section in a cluttered environment.
The missile’s Block-III version, which was tested on May 8, will constitute the 3rd regiment. It has “trajectory maneuver and steep dive capabilities” for mountain warfare operations.
The government has approved the deployment of BrahMos missiles in Arunachal Pradesh to counter China’s huge build-up of military infrastructure all along the 4,057km Line of Actual Control.
With the orders placed for BrahMos missiles already standing at Rs 26,776 crore, the Indian Navy also has installed the missiles on several of its warships till now, including the latest stealth frigates. “The IAF is slated to test the cruise missile from its heavy-duty Sukhoi-30MKI fighters very soon,” said an official.
Separately, an Indian government official on Saturday said India cannot fight a war beyond 15-20 days due to crippling shortages in its ammunition stocks. To add to its woes, the home-grown Tejas light combat aircraft is still nowhere near being combat-ready despite being in the making for over 30 years.
This grim reality of the critical shortfall in ammunition reserves, adversely impacting the operational readiness of the 1.18-million army as well as the problems dogging the Tejas fighter, which has led to a sharp fall in the number of IAF fighter squadrons, has been highlighted officially by the Indian comptroller and auditor general (CAG).
In reports tabled in Parliament, the audit watchdog attacked the Tejas Mark-I jet for being just about 35 per cent indigenous and falling short on as many as 53 technical requirements, greatly reducing its capabilities and survivability in combat.
It also slammed the defence establishment for the dismal management of ammunition in the army, expressing shock that there was total “disregard” of the policy to hold ammunition for 40 days of “intense” fighting under the war wastage reserves (WWR).
“Stocking of 125 of the 170 different types of ammunition was not enough for even 20 days of war-fighting or ‘minimum acceptable risk level’ requirements. Further, in 50 per cent of the types of ammunition, the holding was critical or less than 10 days in March 2013,” the CAG said.
The situation has not changed much since then. According to Indian media, the approved army “ammunition roadmap” holds the desired 40-day WWR will only be possible by 2019, which as things stand now does not seem achievable.
The CAG said while the Ordnance Factory Board was failing to meet the requirements due to its limited production capacity, the import route was also proving to be “unreasonably” slow. “In 17 import cases (total imports worth Rs 16,594 crore) for which acceptance of necessity was accorded in July 2013, no contract could be concluded by December 2014,” he added.
