The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Military aircraft to be equipped to deflect missiles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 12, 2007
ePaper


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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Military aircraft to be equipped to deflect missiles

Rasheed Kappan

Bharat Dynamics Limited will start supply of the system by the end of the year

BANGALORE: Propelling India to an exclusive club of nations with Counter-Measure Dispensation System (CMDS) capability for military aircraft, the Hyderabad-based State-owned defence firm Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has completed the development phase of its indigenous CMDS. It will supply the system for the defence industry this year.

The CMDS, designed to protect an aircraft from missile attacks, will now be integrated with all fighter and military aircraft manufactured in the country, including the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

It will also be part of the upgrades of aircraft of the Indian Air Force and Navy and future generation airplanes, BDL chairman and managing director, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Raajnish Gossain told The Hindu at the "Aero-India 2007" aerospace exposition here.

The system was tried and evaluated on the Jaguar fighter aircraft in August 2006. "With the development phase completed, we will start supply of the system by the end of this year," Maj. Gen. Gossain said. The project was launched three years ago.

Joint effort

For serial production, BDL will work with the IAF, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and DARE, besides the State-owned aviation major, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Once mass-produced, the indigenous CMDS is expected to emerge as a big cost-efficient solution to the Indian defence industry. India now has to rely on costly systems imported from the United States, United Kingdom and Russia, the only countries with industry expertise on the system.

Here's how the CMDS works: once its sensors spot an enemy missile in hot pursuit of the aircraft, the system fires chaffs and flares misguiding the missile.

The missile mistakes the cloud of chaffs and flares to be the aircraft and turns towards it.

Flight to safety

This provides ample time and space for the pilot to take the aircraft to safety.

This air-borne defence system thus provides self-protection against radar guided and Infra Red seeking air and ground missiles, and radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles.

Launched in 1970 for production of guided missiles and allied defence equipment, BDL has now emerged as a prime production agency for the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, the second-generation Anti-Tank Guided Missiles Milan and Konkurs and their upgraded versions, the Milan-2T and Konkurs-M.

The company's focus is on products developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation and products under technology transfer from foreign partners.

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