India has come out with a notice to airmen (NOTAM), announcing that it would be needing 5,400 km of the air space starting from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha in a southerly direction over the Bay of Bengal. The 5,400-km-specific NOTAM indicates that an ‘Agni-V’ series missile could be test-fired, a source who tracks missiles said. But nothing could be speculated on the nature of the missile, he added.

 ‘Yuan Wang 5’ is a missile-tracking ship and it is in the international waters. Last month, another vessel ‘Yuan Wang 6’ had entered the Indian Ocean, coinciding with a planned Indian missile launch which was then deferred.

In August, ‘Yuan Wang 5’ was slated to visit Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. When India protested with the neighbouring country, Colombo deferred the visit of the Chinese vessel.

Built at Jiangnan shipyard in China, ‘Yuan Wang 5’ entered service in 2007. Termed as a “research vessel” by the Chinese, it is a spy ship equipped with a tracking technology on board for transoceanic aerospace observation. It has an effective range of almost 700 to 750 km radius, which means that the vessel can spy on the India’s planned missile test.

A US Department of Defence report titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” released on November 30 describes how the Strategic Support Force (SSF) and the Space Systems Department (SSD) of China operate such assets.

“The SSF operates tracking, telemetry and command stations in several locations worldwide. The SFF and the SSD operates Yuan Wang space support ships that track satellite and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches,” read the report.

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Nirbhay was the 10th missile to be fired by the DRDO during the last 35 days, an average of a missile every four days. India’s emphasis on fast-tracking development and deployment of the new-age stand-off weapons is a response to China’s mobilisation of troops and support elements in the East Ladakh sector.

The DRDO was expected to conduct another trial in a few months that would pave the way for the missile’s full-fledged induction into Indian military and deployment on the borders.

Missile Deployed

A limited number of Nirbhay missiles had been moved earlier to the border with China before Monday’s eighth round of test firing.

Nirbhay is a subsonic missile, flying at a speed of 0.7 Mach, with sea-skimming and terrain-hugging capability that helps the missile stay under enemy radar to avoid detection. The missile has a loitering capability that allows the delivery platform to manoeuvre mid-flight and at the end to hit the target. The missile’s launch is powered by a solid rocket booster developed by DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory, which unlike liquid propellant, are easier to handle.

The 1,000 km range solid rocket booster missile has a single shot kill ratio of more than 90 per cent. With conventional warhead, the missile is capable of deep penetration to strike high-value targets with precision, and can be launched from mobile platforms.

The 12 October tests were conducted as part of an effort by the DRDO to expedite development of missiles along the LAC amid the stand-off with China’s People’s Liberation Army at multiple points in East Ladakh.

At the LAC, the PLA’s western theatre command has deployed stand-off weapons up to 2,000 km range and long-range surface-to-air missiles in Tibet and Xinjiang after the Ladakh stand-off started in May this year. The Chinese deployment is not limited to occupied Aksai Chin but is located in depth positions from Kashgar, Hotan, Lhasa and Nyingchi along the 3,488 km Line of Actual Control (LAC).

These new-age weapons will be based on solid-fuelled ducted ramjet (SFDR) technology that can be used for air-to-air missiles as well as long-range supersonic cruise missiles. The technology has been tested by the DRDO twice – on 30 May 2018, and 8 February 2019.

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The liquid-propelled Prithvi-2, powered by liquid propulsion twin engines, has a range of 350 km and can carry 500 to 1,000 kg of warheads. The 9-metre tall missile is the first to have been developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. It is India’s first indigenous surface-to-surface strategic missile.

The trajectory of the missiles was tracked by a battery of long-range, multi-function radars and electro-optic telemetry stations at different locations.

This was the second night trial of Prithvi-2 in less than three weeks. The DRDO had quietly carried out another round of night trial of the nuclear missile on 27 September.

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The state-of-the-art missile uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target.

In the past too, the Strategic Force Command of the armed forces has executed night trials under the watch of DRDO scientists as part of a training exercise. The missile has already been deployed.

Earlier, on 23 September, the Strategic Forces Command had successfully conducted a night trial of the missile from a Mobile Tatra transporter-erector Launcher (MTL). The  short-range surface-to-surface missile was test fired from the launching complex III (LC-III) of the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

Guided all through by an inertial navigation system and controlled by the thrust vector control and aero-dynamic control systems, the missile reached the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 meters. All the radars, electro-optical systems located along the coast have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile throughout the flight path.

Equipped with a state of the art guidance system the indigenously developed missile was fired in a real-time in full operational configurations..

The nine meter long missile with a diameter of one metre has the capability to carry one tonne of warhead. The missile thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engine uses an inertial guidance system while the warhead uses a radar correlation terminal guidance system.

The night trials of Prithvi were significant as the missiles fired in the dark are difficult to be tracked and shot down. Prithvi-II, capable of attacking targets at a range of 350 km, is India’s first developed and inducted indigenous surface-to-surface strategic missile.

Already inducted into the armoury of the defence forces in 2003, nine-metre long ‘Prithvi’ was the first missile to have been developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). It is in series of production since then.

The previous test of Prithvi-II missile was conducted successfully from the ITR on November 20, 2019.

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