Austin wrote:Saraswat is doing a task mandated by GOI , so there is no point in me calling him a bluster or any thing as he is not extracting money for his own personal benefit. He is just showing big dream which I must say nicely over laps with US Missile Defence ppt may be just a coincidence or probably because what he has in mind must be the latest and greatest out there and that needs big funds which eventually the GOI may or may not provide that is another story.
As far as foreign seller they are already in our BMD system directly or indirectly, even the GP sale needed the approval of US although its an Israel system.
Austin, with all due respect, Saraswat & co were not born yesterday, or day before to "show a big dream" or take what the US said or you and I say on the internet and decide what to do and not to do. Their conclusions are based on a solid understanding of what India's needs are in the ABM area, a task which they were officially mandated to do in 1995 by the GOI, after India faced nuclear blackmail.
The current BM system is suited to what we can do today, and the team is working on increasing that envelope to match both future threats and what India now has the ability to work towards. That's based on a hard nosed estimate of technology. There are clearly entire teams of subject matter experts in multiple fields, working both in the Govt of India as well as academics, on this subject if you care enough to do some looking. Please look at NIAS studies.
So what is this constant and useless refrain about "American missile defence PPT"?
You have already been informed about how the Indian ABM system is a hybrid, with elements of what the US did, the Israelis, the Russians and our own innovation. Of course there will be discussions over what is being done where and exchange of views.
So all this American PPT business is useless and a waste of thinking power!! It is equal to people on youtube accusing each others nations of who copied the MiG-25 and who copied the F-15 and then writing "but it looks like..". Mao, said,
Its not the cat's colour that matters if it catches the mice!!
The Russians have re-activated their Airborne Laser program, are they copying the Americans? The Americans are creating THAAD and what not, and the Russians have S-500, so who is copying whom?
Furthermore, you talk of destabilization and arms race. So far not a single armed forces personnel in any of the GOI institutes who has actively tracked and written on the topic, has spoken against the ABM system. There are many such public articles! They welcome it because it was required!
The Army has long said it can withstand a nuclear strike, and still do its job (see India Today, archive on a nuclear attack on armor formations and how few tanks are knocked out). The politicians have been deterred by attacks on metros and high value economic targets. It is civilian India which has been exposed far too much!!
The ABM system finally provides an option, and secondly, is ethical! The civilians are not left exposed to terror strikes by the Pak/PRC combine while a conventional war is waged, and the political leaders are taken to safety!
And it is also very useful as an additional lever, especially when it comes to Pak. For every x missiles they had dedicated to any Indian city, and thought they could cover ALL the Indian metros, now they can at best target one or two. And even there, not with any certainty of success. To build up missile inventory, and strategic warheads, they will have to divert money more from conventional arms. How much can they afford with economic collapse?
The ABM program is a huge strategic lever for India. Which is why Pakistan in particular, has been crying from the rooftops about it, since it takes their game away. What is worse for them, is that India is also moving on creating the Information-Sensor grid to target low flying cruise vehicles, which were their next big hope since Ballistic Missiles alone could not do the job. (See, press reports of Phalcon, AFNet)
And lastly, the GP sale may have required the approval of the US, but these were clearly used for speeding up the ABM development, while the LRTR program went on in parallel and is now ready (
http://www.domain-b.com/aero/mil_avi/mi ... ssile.html) Point is US etc dont have any control over our BMD capabilities, we are sufficiently insulated where it matters and this has been well thought out.