Indian Navy : After successful launch, K-15 missile ready to join Arihant nuclear submarine

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ends 2012 on an upbeat note, successfully launching the underwater missile K-15 off the Visakhapatnam coast on Wednesday. The missile darted 20 km into the air, after a gas generator ejected it from the pontoon that lay submerged a few scores of metres in the Bay of Bengal, and sped 650 km before splashing into the sea in its 11th flight trial. 

After one more flight, the two-stage missile will be integrated with Arihant, India’s nuclear-powered submarine, and test-fired from the ship. “It is a fantastic system. It is a very powerful and accurate system,” said A.K. Chakrabarti, Programme Director, K-15, and Director of the Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which designed and developed the missile.

“India is the fifth country to have an underwater launch system. The other countries are the U.S., Russia, France and China,” he said. 

Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, termed it “a good flight” and said the test “formed part of the pre-production clearance.” Twelve K-15 missiles, each 10 metres long and weighing six tonnes and capable of carrying nuclear warheads, will form part of the deadly arsenal of Arihant, which is powered by an 80-MWt reactor that uses enriched uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator. 

Informed sources said the reactor had already been integrated with the Arihant at Visakhapatnam. “The commissioning process is on,” they said. The reactor would reach criticality within the first few months of 2013. The harbour trials of the ship have been completed, and it is ready for sea trials.

India has been developing the K-4 missile, to be launched from submarines. It will be more powerful than K-15, with a range of 3,000 km.

Three generations of Chinese PLAAF fighters in air force Night fighting training in the Tibetan plateau

Chinese fighters practice war games in Tibet to continue their occupation of Tibet

Indo-Russian - BrahMos set to become a “Super Rocket”

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is all set to become a “super rocket” soon, which would beef up India’s tactical defence capability significantly. However, the test launches of the air variant of the BrahMos II hyper-sonic missile, which were supposed to be completed by 2012, are experiencing delays. The realistic date for completion of these tests is now believed to be 2015.
 Sources in the Indian strategic establishment said India has upgraded its BrahMos missiles by “wedding” these with Russia’s advanced satellite navigation systems. The “marriage” of the BrahMos’s navigation systems with Russia's Kh-555 and Kh-101 strategic long-range cruise missiles has made BrahMos a “super rocket”. The word “rocket” here is used in context of a weapon, not a space rocket.

The new avatar of BrahMos will have to undergo tests and field trials before it becomes operational with the Indian defence services. However, this would not take unduly long.
The improved version of BrahMos will be endowed with a sub-strategic capability and would increase its tactical range too. The new version would also be capable of carrying nuclear warheads and can be launched from sea, land and air, like the old version. Its range of hitting targets would now be over 180-300 miles (300-500 km).


The new air-launched version of BrahMos will be carried by Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft. The Indian Air Force is set to be a far more potent force by 2020 when it is scheduled to deploy 200 advanced Sukhoi fighters, equipped with the new version of BrahMos “super rockets.” This will be a lethal combination and will make the Sukhois strategic bombers.

Another important feature of the upgraded BrahMos missile is that it has added GPS-GLONASS technology to it. This is of vital strategic importance as GLONASS, Russia’s navigation service provider, gives India access to military signals, while the American GPS does not.
BrahMos missile is jointly developed by India and Russia and is named after two major rivers – Brahmaputra of India and Muscova of Russia. The missile is capable of flying at a very high speed at tree-top levels which adds to its tactical utility.

BrahMos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. BrahMos is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service and is deployed on INS Rajput since 2005. The missile has 'fire and forget' principle, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target. Its destructive power is enhanced due to large kinetic energy on impact. Its cruising altitude could be up to 15 km (9.3 miles) and terminal altitude is as low as 10 meters.
Compared to existing state-of-the-art subsonic cruise missiles, BrahMos has three times more velocity, 2.5 to 3 times more flight range, 3 to 4 times more seeker range and 9 times more kinetic energy. The missile has identical configuration for land, sea and sub-sea platforms and uses a Transport Launch Canister (TLC) for transportation, storage and launch. The missile is universal for multiple platforms and can pin point accuracy with high lethal power aided by large kinetic energy on impact. It has shorter flight times leading to lower target dispersion and quicker engagement.
 So far India has deployed BrahMos missile in the western sector only against Pakistan. However, since the missile is fitted on a mobile launcher it can be transported anywhere in the country and deployed within a short time. The Indian Army is planning to deploy it against China as well in near future. India started a massive war preparedness drill in Arunachal Pradesh in the north-eastern sector codenamed “Pralaya” on February 29, 2012.
BrahMos is a stealth supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is about three-and-a-half times faster than the USA's subsonic Harpoon cruise missile and three times faster than USA's subsonic Tomahawk missile. India has also planned an air-launched variant which is expected to come out in 2012 and will make India the only country with supersonic missiles in all the defence forces. However, the 2012 deadline is unlikely to be met.
A hypersonic version of the missile, which is also presently under development with speed of Mach 7 to boost aerial fast strike capability, is expected to be ready by 2016. BrahMos has the capability of attacking surface targets by flying as low as 10 meters.

The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress. The Indian Army has so far placed orders for the BrahMos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the Army and two of them have already been inducted operationally. A hypersonic version of the missile, which is also presently under development with speed of Mach 7 to boost aerial fast strike capability, is expected to be ready by 2016.

The army and navy versions of the BrahMos missile weigh three tons or more. The missile is also available for exports whosoever is interested in it as long as they are ready to shell out about $2-3 million apiece. The cost depends on the version. The BrahMos has been developed as a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia under BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is named after two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

Bangladesh army gets 44 new Chinese-made main battle tanks MBT2000 and Locating Radar LLC-2

Bangladesh Army has started introduction of the fourth-generation China-made MTB-2000 main battle tanks procured through outright purchase, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Thursday, December 13, 2012.

China Marine Corps brigade under the People's Liberation Army Navy(PLAN) amphibious landing

Methane contributes to accelerated warming in the Arctic

Above combination image featured earlier in the post Striking increase of methane in the Arctic. The images were produced by Dr. Leonid Yurganov, Senior Research Scientist, JCET, UMBC, who presented his findings at the AGU Fall Meeting 2012. The image below gives an update for 2012, showing an image with methane levels at 600 hPa.

Temperature anomalies on the inset on above image are averages for the full month November, whereas the methane levels displayed on the left are for the first ten days of November only. Using temperature maps for the same periods in such comparisons may result in even more striking simularities between methane levels and temperatures. For a more complete picture, further comparisons between November 2008 and November 2012 are added, for days 11-20 (below),

and for days 21-30 (below).

The images show that the highest methane levels show up above the water, as opposed to above land, indicating that methane is being released from the seabed across the Arctic.

Temperatures have meanwhile changed. In November 2012, there were high temperature anomalies in east Siberia. There now are very low temperatures throughout Siberia, as illustrated by the Wunderground map below, which shows high temperatures. Temperatures as low as -60.5°F (-51.4°C) were recorded in Susuman, east Siberia, both on December 13th and 17th, 2012.

The now hugely deformed polar jet stream and high levels of methane in the Arctic are only two out of numerous feedbacks that contribute to accelerate warming in the Arctic. Without rapid action, we can expect such wild swings in temperature to get even worse, making more extreme weather the new norm.

Polar jet stream appears hugely deformed

World climate zones used to be kept well apart by jet streams. On the northern hemisphere, the polar jet stream was working hard to separate the Tundra and Boreal climate zones' colder air in the north from the Temperate climate and the Subtropical climate zones' warmer air in the south.

NOAA image

The greater the difference in temperature between north and south, the faster the jet streams spin around the globe, the polar jet stream at about 60°N and the subtropical jet stream at about 30°N, as illustrated on above image. 

NOAA image

The polar jet stream used to move at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour, while following a relatively straight track that was meandering only slightly, i.e. with waves that go up and down only a little bit.

Accordingly, the Northern Temperate Zone used to experience only mild differences between summer and winter weather, rather than the extreme hot or cold temperatures that we've experienced recently.

Accelerated warming in the Arctic is decreasing the difference in temperature between the Arctic and the Northern Temperate Zone. This is causing the polar jet to slow down and become more wavy, i.e. with larger loops, as illustrated by the NASA image further below.

Polar jet stream (blue) & subtropical
jet stream (red) - NOAA image

                   Diagram of Doom, Sam Carana

This is a feedback of accelerated warming in the Arctic that reinforces itself. As the jet stream slows down and its waves become more elongated, cold air can leave the Arctic more easily and come down deep into the Northern Temperate Zone. Conversily, more warm air can at the same time move north into the Arctic.

The 'open doors' feedback further decreases the difference in temperature between the Arctic and the Northern Temperate Zone, in turn further slowing down the jet stream and making it more wavy, and thus further accelerating warming in the Arctic.

The polar jet stream can travel at speeds greater than 100 mph. Here, the fastest winds are colored red; slower winds are blue. View animated version here. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

How does this affect temperatures? If we look at the average surface temperature anomalies for the month November 2012, we see huge differences in temperatures. Areas in the East Siberian Sea and in east Siberia registered average surface temperature anomalies for November 2012 of about 10 degrees Celsius, compared with 1951-1980. At the same time, areas in Alaska and Canada have been experiencing anomalies of about -10 degrees Celsius.

This suggests a hugely deformed polar jet stream, as indicated by the contour lines on above image on the right. This is very worrying, as this is only one out of many feedbacks that come with accelerated warming in the Arctic. There are at least ten such feedbacks, as depicted in the diagram below, from the earlier post Diagram of Doom.

       Diagram of Doom, Sam Carana

One of the most frightening feedbacks is the albedo loss in the Arctic. The speed at which changes are taking place can be illustrated with the image below, from the earlier post Big changes in the Arctic within years.

The urgency to act is perhaps best expressed by means of the two images below, which can constitute a fitting end-of-year message if you like to share them further. The image below highlights that Arctic sea ice minimum volume in 2012 was only 19.3% what it was in 1979. The background image, prepared by Wipneus, shows an exponential trend projecting a 2013 minimum of only 2000 cubic km of sea ice, with a margin of error that allows Arctic sea ice to disappear altogether next year, i.e. nine months from now.

Finally, the image below highlights that, in 2012, Arctic sea ice area fell by 83.7% in just 168 days, again illustrating how fast things can eventuate. 

For more quotes, see the page at http://arcticmethane.blogspot.com/p/quotes.html

Earlier posts:
- Opening the Doorways to Doom

- Opening further Doorways to Doom

- Diagram of Doom

- How to avert an intensifying food crisis

- Albedo change in the Arctic threatens to cause runaway global warming

- Big changes in Arctic within years