Andhra Pradesh   

India for tie-ups to develop Medium Combat Aircraft

Y. Mallikarjun

Roadmap for futuristic weapons

HYDERABAD: With the successful development of the multi-role Light Combat Aircraft indigenously, India is ready to collaborate with friendly countries to develop the Medium Combat Aircraft to meet the future defence needs.

"We are open for collaboration in R&D and technical cooperation, provided it brings down the cost, develops synergy and benefits mutually", V. K. Saraswat, chief controller (R & D), Defence Research and Development Organisation, told The Hindu.

The experience gained in developing the LCA would enable India to develop the higher performance MCA, which was still in the planning stage.

He said India was willing to partner with the global industry and R&D in the proposed venture.

"India has graduated from just buying weapon systems to developing and collaborating with the global best".

He cited the example of the BrahMos supersonic missile, the India, Russian joint venture.

Dr. Saraswat said that DRDO was evolving a roadmap to meet the technical requirements of futuristic weapons systems, including missiles, keeping in view the possibility that all prospective warfare would be network-centric.

"It will not be localised and highly distributed", he conjectured.

Such a warfare would require different types of highly robust, self-healing weapons (having the capacity for automatic correction of defects) with a high degree of precision.

He said efforts were already on to reduce the "misdistance" of a Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) to ensure a direct hit of the target. While the misdistance of the present SAMs the world over was 10 to 15 metres, the aim was to reduce it to "sub-metre" distance.

Such an advanced SAM would help in avoiding collateral damage and the need to carry huge warheads.

They would have GPS-based hybrid navigation and MEMS (Micro- Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors.

Stressing the need for GPS-reliance to improve the accuracy of weapon systems, he said that India should have its own satellite constellation and pointed out that all the bombs dropped in the Gulf War were GPS-guided.

As part of the roadmap, MEMS sensors were expected to be developed in three years, and precision-guided munitions, among others for rockets, missiles and artillery shells, within three to four years' time.

Totally encrypted communication data, upgradation of tactical forces and a very accurate surveillance system, which enables real-time communication, were the other important elements of the roadmap, as future battles would be fast acting and of short duration.

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