Indian Navy successfully tests long-delayed air defence missile

In a giant capability boost for the Indian Navy, a naval warship on Wednesday test-fired a new missile that can shoot down incoming aerial threats – aircraft and missiles – whilst they are still 70 kilometres away.

A defence ministry press release stated: “Adding a quantum jump in its air defence capability, INS Kolkata, Indian Navy’s state of art, indigenous stealth destroyer, successfully test fired the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM).  Two missiles were fired on December 29 and 30 of on high-speed targets, during naval exercises being undertaken in the Arabian Sea.”

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and India’s Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) have jointly developed the LR-SAM. The Israelis call this cutting-edge missile system the Barak-8, while India calls it the LR-SAM. In earlier days, ship-to-ship battles were fought with heavy-calibre guns, requiring warships to come within gun range of each other. Once a shell was fired from a gun, there was no way of intercepting it in mid-flight.

Guns have now been replaced by long-range, anti-ship missiles, which are fired from submarines, ships or aircraft up to 150 kilometres away. Many of these, such as the US-made Harpoon II, are extremely accurate, with sensors on the missile guiding it unerringly onto its target. Anti-ship missiles have a key vulnerability, though. Since they are much bigger and travel slower that a gun shell, missiles can be detected at long ranges with radar, and then shot down in mid-flight with another missile.

The LR-SAM is said to be capable of shooting down incoming missiles and aircraft with a reliability that exceeds 95 per cent. DRDO sources say there will be further tests to verify that accuracy and that the missile has been integrated properly onto INS Kolkata.

The LR-SAM includes cutting-edge radar called the MF-STAR (multi-function surveillance, tracking and acquisition radar), which tracks incoming hostile aircraft and missiles at ranges out to 200 kilometres. It then guides an interceptor missile, fired from the warship, to shoot down the threat at ranges out to 70 kilometres.

During the Kargil conflict of 1999, when war clouds were looming, the navy realised to its dismay that its warships had no counter to the Pakistan Navy’s Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

That meant Indian warships, some costing almost half a billion dollars, were vulnerable to the $2 million Harpoon missile. At New Delhi’s request, Tel Aviv supplied the navy with Barak “anti-missile missiles”, which tided over that crisis.

In January 2006, the DRDO and IAI signed an agreement to develop an advanced, longer-range version of the Barak to counter anti-ship missiles of the future. This missile system would not just protect the destroyer or frigate it was fitted in, but also create a protected “air defence bubble” for other vessels in the flotilla that were too small to have their own air defence systems.

India allocated Rs 2,606 crore to the LR-SAM project, including Rs 1,700 crore for equipping three Kolkata-class destroyers with the system. The Israeli Navy made an equal commitment, undertaking to fit the Barak-8 on its three Sa’ar corvettes.

The work share was divided, with 30 per cent going to the DRDO, which was charged with developing the LR-SAM’s solid-fuel, two-pulse propulsion motors. Israeli company, Rafael, has developed the rest of the interceptor missile. IAI has built the rest of the systems, including the sophisticated MF-STAR radar.

The LR-SAM was to be delivered by 2012. However, a delay of three-to-four years was caused by the DRDO’s difficulties in building the sophisticated two-pulse motor.

The LR-SAM project has been a boon for Israel’s defence industry, with India sharing development costs and also placing larger orders on Israeli high-tech manufacturers than that country’s tiny navy could ever afford.

Besides three Kolkata-class destroyers, the LR-SAM will also equip four Project 15-B destroyers being constructed in Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai (MDL); seven stealth frigates being built under Project 17-A in MDL and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata (GRSE); and INS Vikrant, the indigenous aircraft carrier being built in Kochi.

The LR-SAM for these vessels will be integrated at state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd, with components coming from a supply chain that will include private firms like Godrej & Boyce, and SEC. A significant percentage of the missile would come from Israel and only be integrated in India.

DRDO officials say that indigenising numerous sub-systems will bring down the cost of the system. However, Israeli entities will not transfer proprietary technologies that they have developed, admit DRDO sources. At best, they will transfer technology for manufacturing high-tech components — dismissed as “screw-driver technology” by defence industrialists.