neerajb wrote:Austin the range of the missile depends on target aspect and target speed or closure speed to be more specific. Whether target is supersonic or subsonic is irrelevant here but what is relevant is whether it is approaching the SAM or receding away! A supersonic aircraft is a good intercept target if it's approaching but a difficult one if it's receding. In short, One needs positive closure velocity in order to have a successful intercept and target aspect is more important here than sheer speed of the aircraft.
I completely agree with you on this point , another point if I could add is the closing or receding target should be in the LOS of Rajendra MFR.
Supersonic aircrafts don't pull 9gs but fly level and straight. In fact I have seen test footage of F-16 which went into departure by mild turn maneuvers. Even if we assume a rafale/EF to be doing 9gs at mach 1, the turn diameter comes out to be 2.5 kms approx which IMO is not difficult for a mach 2.5 missile capable of pulling 15gs at the extreme of its flight envelope owing to it's all the way powered flight.
Which is true ,except the fact that a Rafale/EF can do much more then turn , they will use its supersonic kinetic energy besides Jamming , Chaff to blind the radar , needless to mention they can use HARM as well.
Despite the dual thrust motors, modern missiles are not powered throughout the flight because of practical limitations of weight and size and the speed v/s distance graph on the previous page illustrates how deceptive those high mach numbers of other missiles are.
Except the fact no missile designers has ever touched ramjet for SAM since 60's when they last designed the SA-6 , even experience design house like soviet moved to solid propulsion for all future missile and certainly west were not keen on ramjet use , should give you a good idea that coasting is not a big disadvantage as its made out to be , needless to say further development by DRDO does not use ramjet.
The ramjet for Akash was chosen in early 80's when we had a good exposure to SA-6 and the entire Akash project was suppose to get operationalise by mid 90's , DRDO refined it further by using modern PESA and digitise the whole thing , Akash never had much problem with its missile than the other stuff that kept changing and Army/IAF changed its goal post in late 90 and 2000 with respect to its group configuration , the ramjet tech for akash was perfected in mid early 90's but the other aspect were moving goal post and delayed every thing , not to mention technology challenges as no outside help was taken for this project.
User trials to verify the consistency in performance of the total weapon system against low flying
near range target, long range high altitude target, crossing and approaching target and ripple firing of two missiles from the same launcher against a low altitude receding target were conducted at ITR, Chandipur during Dec 2007. Akash missile successfully intercepted nine targets in successive launches. Fifth and last trial successfully took place at 2.15pm on 21st Dec at Chandipur on sea in which the Akash missile destroyed an
Unmanned Air Vehicle (Lakshya) which was flying a path simulating an air attack.
http://akashsam.com/about.htm
On careful reading one can notice that nowhere they have mentioned absolute speed of the target but aspect, range, closure velocity and altitude which are the determinative performance parameters for a SAM.
Cheers....
Most of the Akash test including the final user trial was done with Lakshya and its tow body essentially a subsonic target , I have never come across any news that talks of any thing other then lakshya target and my personal conversation with DRDO folks have mentioned it lakshya.
But a supersonic target should not be a problem , they can use the SA-3 missile as supersonic target drone.
