‘Chinese Avangard’: New Intercontinental Range Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Strike Capability Pose Huge Threat For India
China reportedly carried out its first successful test launch of an intercontinental range hypersonic glide vehicle in August. Russia was previously the only country to field such assets after deploying Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles from December 2019.
China was previously the only country to deploy shorter
ranged tactical hypersonic glide vehicles with its DF-17 missile, although
North Korea tested a missile reported to have similar capabilities, the Hwasong-8
in late September.
Hypersonic glide vehicles rely on rocket boosters to gain
high speeds and altitudes, which are much higher for intercontinental range
platforms, before detaching and following an atmospheric flight trajectory with
high manoeuvrability.
This optimises such missiles for evading air defences with no
known air defence system thought to be able to come close to neutralising such
threats.
Looking at this, Chinese Avangard seems to pose huge security
threat to India, considering both countries are locked in Military Standoff for
more than a year now.
How Capable is the Sukhoi-57 as a Strike Fighter? New
Precision Munitions Can Be a Game Changer for India against China
Russia's Sukhoi-57 next generation fighter saw its first
combat deployment in February 2018.
An assessment of its air to ground and anti-ship missiles in
particular indicate that it is equally if not more capable in a strike role.
At the lower end the PBK-500U Drel glide bomb allows the Sukhoi-57
to engage ground targets 30-50 kilometers away, The bombs use inertial and
GLONASS satellite guidance & fire & forget capabilities to maximise
precision.
For longer range strikes Sukhoi-57 use Kinzhal Kh-59MK2
cruise missile.
The Sukhoi-57 can deploy
the Kh-58, Kh-38M, Kh-58UHSE anti-radiation missiles which is optimised to
neutralise enemy radar and air defence sites.
The
Sukhoi-57 Fighters most notable air to ground missile is a miniaturised variant
of the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles are relatively rare that
no countries in world have yet deployed from a fighter sized aircraft which
makes it potentially revolutionary.
How Army Is Tracking Chinese Activities Along Arunachal
Border Amid Row
Indian Army’s aviation base with its Heron drones is helping
troops keep a hawk eye on the Chinese activities along the Line of Actual
Control in the highly sensitive Arunachal Pradesh sector.
The Army base is also equipped with other important assets,
including the ALH Dhruv and its weaponised version Rudra, to enhance the
capabilities of the forces on the ground at a time when India and China have
been engaged in a military standoff since last year.
Heron drones are the most beautiful aircraft as far as
surveillance resources are concerned. It can climb up to 30,000 feet and
continue to relay feed to commanders on the ground. So that, Army can manoeuver
forces on the ground. It has an endurance of 24-30 hours at a stretch.
Rotary wing aircrafts are fully capable of carrying troops
and full battle load to any kind of treacherous terrain, or in any kind of
weather conditions.
During bad weather, Indian Army has day and night cameras, synthetic
aperture radar which can give track of entire terrain.
After delays Army Air Defence looks at leap in modernisation in the next few months in terms of
deals and trials. These include additional indigenous Akash Surface to Air
Missile systems, the under development Medium Range Surface to Air Missile MRSAM
and Igla-S Very Short Range Air Defence Systems from Russia.
The Army had contracted a small number of Igla-S systems from
Russia under emergency procurement and deliveries were expected soon.
The Army has two Akash regiments in service and negotiations
are on for two more. Contract is expected to be concluded by January. Akash is
the indigenously designed and developed medium range SAM system with a range of
25 kilometers. In addition, the Army variant of the MRSAM, being jointly
developed by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries is nearing induction with the
final stage of trials scheduled to be held in the next few months.
Air Defence functions at three levels – gun/missile system,
medium range and high range. Within this, the Air Defence guns are of two
types- Air Defence Gun Missile system and the Air Defence self-propelled guns.
The Army is looking for guns in both the categories.
