Jane's Defence Weekly - January 16, 2008
India calls time on indigenous Integrated Guided-Missile Development Programme
Rahul Bedi JDW Correspondent - New Delhi
Key Points
India has closed its Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme after 24 years characterised by delays and escalating costs
The DRDO is to look overseas and to local industry to deliver future missile systems
India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has announced the termination of its indigenous Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) after 24 years marked by technical over-reach, lengthy delays and cost escalation.
Announcing the closure of the INR17.17 billion (USD440 million) programme - at a time when only two of its five missile systems had been inducted into service - the DRDO's Chief Controller, Dr S Prahlada, said on 8 January in New Delhi that the organisation would henceforth turn to foreign collaborators and local private industry to design new systems.
It would, he added, now take only five to six years to develop a missile system, compared with the two decades and more that it previously took, given that past technology embargoes were no longer in place.
Prahlada said some 14 countries, including France, Germany, Israel, Russia, Singapore, the UK and the United States, were "knocking on the DRDO's doors" to collaborate in the missile field, while the country's industrial base had also grown in capability. Strategic programmes to build long-range nuclear missiles to reinforce India's deterrence would, however, be undertaken "in-house" by the DRDO.
With Russian collaboration, the DRDO recently designed the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile configured on the 3M55 Oniks/Yakhont system (NATO designation: SS-NZX-26) with a range of 292 km. Astra, a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile that can hit targets at a range of 80 km, is under development with French help. India's private sector is involved in both of these programmes.
Launched in 1983 by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, who rose to become India's president in 2002, the IGMDP involved the development of the Agni ('Fire') I & II intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), Prithvi surface-to-surface missile (SSM) variants and Akash ('Sky') and Trishul ('Trident') surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).
Army trials for the fifth system, the Nag ('Snake') anti-tank missile, which has been under development for more than two decades, are scheduled for later this year.
"By December 2008, all five missile systems will have been transferred to the users," Prahlada stated.
The Indian armed forces, however, conceded that the two Agni systems and the Prithvi tactical battlefield SSM variants were "riddled" with operational glitches, while the Trishul has proven a failure because of inadequate guidance and stabilisation system, in addition to numerous other drawbacks.
In 2003 the government informed parliament that the Trishul had been shelved and withdrawn from user service and that it would be treated as a "technology demonstrator".
However, a dogged DRDO - under military pressure for non-performance, alleged arbitrariness and a lack of accountability - refused to abandon the system and recently declared it a success without adequate corroboration from the armed forces.
The Trishul's failure forced the Indian Navy in 2000 to meet its operational needs by importing Israel Aircraft Industries/Rafael Barak air-defence missile systems for its warships and lone aircraft carrier at great expense.
"In technological terms the IGMDP has been a learning curve for the DRDO, but its end products have not measured up to the services' expectations," said retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal of the United Services Institute in Delhi.
Although the Indian Air Force has agreed to induct the delayed Akash, following extended user trials in December 2007, the army has sprung a surprise by rejecting the system, claiming that it failed to meet its requirements to plug vital gaps in its weak air defence. The army also believed that the DRDO would be unable to develop the Akash for the force's specific use for at least a decade.
Consequently, the army will soon float global tenders for three regiments of Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) systems for around USD1 billion as urgent replacements for its obsolete, Russian-built Kvadrat SAMs.
In an associated development, the DRDO's V K Sarawat announced India's intentions to test an advanced nuclear-capable Agni III+ IRBM with a range of more than 5,000 km early next year.
The proposed missile would build on the Agni III, the 3,000-km IRBM successfully test-fired in April 2007, as part of India's goal of developing a strategic deterrent against neighbouring nuclear rival China.
© 2008 Jane's Information Group