December 6, 2007:
After a
quarter century of development, India has accepted the Akash anti-aircraft missile
system for service. The Indian Air Force will buy several firing units, for
The air force is also
planning to buy similar Israeli Spyder systems. This is a mobile, short range
system using, as many such systems do these days, air-to-air missiles. Spyder
launchers (truck mounted, with four box like launch cells each) can carry
either the Python 5 heat seeking missile (ten feet long, 231 pounds, with a
range of 15 kilometers) or the Derby radar guided missile (11.2 feet long, 267
pounds, with a range of 65 kilometers). The Derby is actually a larger Python,
with more fuel and a different guidance system. Each Spyder system has four
missile launcher trucks, a radar truck and a missile re-supply truck. Each
Spyder system costs about $10 million. Spyder radar has a maximum range of 100
kilometers. The missiles can hit targets as high as 28,000 feet and as low as
Meanwhile, in the last two
years, there have been many successful Akash test launches. While many in the
government wanted to cancel the project, work continued. It's been 17 years since the first test
launch, and three years since the project was last cancelled. Every few years,
politicians and journalists get indignant about the slow, or non-existent,
progress of the project. Yes, there is always enough progress, or a successful
appeal to national pride, to keep the money coming, and block orders to cancel
Akash is basically an
upgraded Russian SA-6 system, and is meant to replace very old Russian air
defense systems. Each 1,543 pound Akash missile has a 132 pound warhead, a
range of 27 kilometers and can kit targets as high as 49,000 feet, or as low as
66 feet. India wants to built a version of Akash for use on ships, and is
already looking into a longer range (60 kilometers) version. India has spent
This work on indigenous
missile designs, under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program
(IGMDP), managed by the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO),
India's equivalent to the U.S. DARPA. (Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency.) What apparently caused the most problems was software development.
While India has a lot of local talent in this department, creating this kind of
specialized military software is very difficult.