Sunday, 17 February 2008

Photos from Defexpo India 08 : Akash Missile

Broadsword February 17, 2008 Defence Production, Missiles,

Akash missile on display at the Defexpo 2008 with one of its prime architects, Dr Prahlada

6 comments:

Anonymous17 February 2008 at 05:14
Prime architects, Dr Prahlada.......Hmm, Architectect as in design!!

It's quite obvious to anyone that knows what they are looking at, that the missile is an SA-6 derivative. they took the SA-6 and modernized it. Big deal. dimensionally and design-wise, they are the same. Same size warhead, same propulsion system, same airframe and wing design, etc. The improvement in range is a function of the lighter weight.
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Anonymous17 February 2008 at 09:08
Are they real pieces or dummy replica used for show ?
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Ajai Shukla17 February 2008 at 19:13
very much the real thing. Real vehicles, real missiles.
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Anonymous18 February 2008 at 03:19
>>>Prime architects, Dr Prahlada.......Hmm, Architectect as in design!!

It's quite obvious to anyone that knows what they are looking at, that the missile is an SA-6 derivative. they took the SA-6 and modernized it. Big deal. dimensionally and design-wise, they are the same. Same size warhead, same propulsion system, same airframe and wing design, etc. The improvement in range is a function of the lighter weight.

The schematic of the Akash shows a different layout from the SA-6 with far more modern gear in the Akash, including an OBC, a RPFuse, and not to mention a sensor assembly. And the improvement in range is because a new propellant was used.
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Abhiman21 February 2008 at 10:38
This comment has been removed by the author.
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Abhiman21 February 2008 at 10:42
Mr. Shukla, thanks for bringing the photos from DefExpo to your blog.

Anonymous, the Akash does borrow the ramjet-tube design from SA-6. However, the internal electronics, softwares, sensors, and most importantly, the radars and guidance systems are entirely different. They conform to latest modern standards, and not to the baseline SA-6 of the '60s.

Please note that the Soviet Scud is also a direct descendent of the V-2; it was built by Soviet Union in the 50's, based on inputs from captured Nazi scientists and V-2 paper designs (however the "prize catch", Werhner von Braun, who invented V-2, was captured by the US and who later went on to head the Apollo-11 programme and ICBM programmes).

So, India's "fledgling" missile research industry of 1975 could not have begun retracing the early steps of von Braun, which he took 40 years back. Some "headway" was needed on the minimum basics of liquid propulsion of the day --- the culmination of 40 years of unstopped research. Thus, the SA-2 was reverse engineered in the ''70s, under project Devil.

The Akash is internally entirely different from the SA-6 of the 1960s, in that it uses much more sophisticated electronics and softwares. It also uses a 3-D radar for tracking and targeting, the Rajendra. There is also a network of batteries which are autonomously guided by a central radar center.

In comparison, the SA-6 is a "crude" system.

Thank you.
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