Lord of the lies

As if in response to the hammering they've got, CNN-IBN's Vishal Thapar the great, of Chemical Goofups and lifafagiri fame, has come up with a great way to put down the Navy's test of the Brahmos Land Attack missile variant last week. Looks like Vishal-bhai wants to create issues where none exist. This time, its Environmentalism.

Check out his report of March 5th: (CNN-IBN Report link)

Indian Navy flexes its muscle, tests Brahmos missile
Vishal Thapar / CNN-IBN
Published on Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 23:05

New Delhi: For the first time, India has used the Andaman Islands as a missile target. A Brahmos cruise missile was launched from a warship at sea on Wednesday to destroy a target on an uninhabited island.

But the missile test could also open up an environmental debate.

On Wednesday, India sought to validate its navy's land attack capability by pulverising a target on an uninhabited island in the North Andaman.

The weapon was a Brahmos cruise missile, and the launch pad a Rajput class destroyer 300 km away in the Bay of Bengal.

"The naval capability must acquire enough muscle to be able to significantly influence the battle on land," says defence analyst Commodore C Uday Bhaskar."

Never before has India actually tested a naval missile against a target on land.

The problem was the lack of availability of an uninhabited stretch on the mainland.

Hence, the choice of the Andaman as many small islands there are uninhabited and is a place where a missile hit poses perhaps the least visible collateral impact.

And there are international precedents. But even military analysts concede that there's an ecological cost.

"It would be incorrect to suggest that delivery of ordinance will have not have an environmental impact. It always does," Commodore Bhaskar adds.

The Andaman seems set to get a more military colour. It's not just about a missile firing range or a test bed for military doctrine and equipment.

The island territory could well emerge as India's Diego Garcia.

I cant even start talking about the holes in this story (the story in this hole more likely). For one, look at how he shoots everywhere but at the target. FYI Vishalji, we want information about BRAHMOS. Not Andamans, not the environment, but Brahmos. Considering that this was the first and primary report about the test, the amount of information (or lack thereof) of meaningful information about it is astounding. Then, there are the misdirections.

Look at the opening line

For the first time, India has used the Andaman Islands as a missile target.

So guess what, the important thing here is actually the fact that Andaman Islands has become a missile target, not the fact that the Brahmos was tested (which isnt even the main focus here).

Then, the next paragraph, which consists of the single line (which Thapar deigns to be of critical importance):

But the missile test could also open up an environmental debate.

Could, eh. Not has, not will, but could. So basically, there isnt a debate now, and there doesnt look to be one forming, but it could. Laughable. For one thing, rather than tell us whether the test was even successful, or give more information about it, Thapar goes on to highlight a non-existing controversy, probably in the hope that it would actually be formed.

And finally, after giving only 3 lines of obvious detail, which I've put below:

India sought to validate its navy's land attack capability by testing a Brahmos cruise missile against a target on an uninhabited island in the Andamans. The missile was launched from a Rajput class warship in the Bay of Bengal, 300 km from the target. This is the first time that The Navy has tested a missile against a land target.

As you can see, not a lot of useful information. Thapar goes on to conclude as follows:

The island territory could well emerge as India's Diego Garcia.

So after skirting Brahmos, or forgetting to mention how important this test has been for the Navy's strategic reach, and instead, talking about the effect of this test on the seagulls, he finally concludes with something totally out of context. Absolutely brilliant reporting, isn't it.

Now, coming to the actual environmental impact, its minimal. First of all, the Brahmos has such a high accuracy that it can actually hit a 1m x 1m size spot with no error. Second, most Brahmos tests are conducted without a warhead, which minimizes to a large extent the damage to the surrounding areas. Third, the actual target was placed in an open area on a sand dune, which will absorb a lot of the destructive power. All in all, the environmental impact of such testing is negligible. Its not zero, but the closest thing to it. As always, Thapar has taken a quote from the interviewee, spun it out of proportion and made a faluda mix out of it. Good for him; bad for truth.

If you read this report and felt totally unsatisfied with the information given, I suggest you check out this report from The Hindu instead.

India steps up production of Prithvi and BrahMos

This interesting report from Times of India caught my eye:

With Pakistan rapidly moving towards enlarging its missile arsenal with China’s help, India is slowly but steadily stepping up production of Prithvi surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, as well as BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. Sources said facilities were now in place to produce around 20 Prithvi missiles every year, while the annual production rate of BrahMos missiles is geared towards touching 50 in the near future.

In 2006-2007, for instance, Hyderabad-based defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited for the first time managed to produce 15 full-fledged Prithvi missiles and four training missiles, apart from 18 warheads, said sources. While different Prithvi variants have strike ranges varying from 150-km to 350-km, the BrahMos missile developed with Russia can hit targets over 290-km away.

"Similar plans to step up production of the strategic missiles (700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km-plus Agni-II ballistic missiles) are in the pipeline," said a source.

While Army has had its 150-km Prithvi-I missiles for some years now, IAF and Navy operationalised their longer-range variants of the same missile recently. Navy, for instance, is weaponising its Sukanya-class large patrol crafts with Prithvi’s ‘Dhanush’ variant, which has a strike range of 250-km to 350-km. IAF, in turn, has started moving its Prithvi-II missile squadrons from Hyderabad to some airbases closer to the western front.

As for the air-breathing BrahMos missiles, which fly at a speed of 2.8 Mach, Navy was the first service to equip its frontline warships like Rajput-class destroyers with their vertical launch systems. The Army, which already has missile groups to handle Prithvi, Agni-I and Agni-II, is now also operationalising BrahMos land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) as its "precision strike weapon."

Work on BrahMos’ air-launched version for Sukhoi-30MKI multi-role fighters, however, had been hit by delays. Consequently, this missile will be integrated with the naval IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft as the first step.

Incidentally, Pakistan tested a new air-launched 350-km range cruise missile, ‘Hatf-8’ or ‘Thunder’, a couple of months ago. Moreover, its ‘Babur’ cruise missile, said to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads to 500 km, is already on course for large-scale induction. Indian defence scientists, too, are working on a wide array of missile programmes, which interestingly also include submarine-launched versions of both Prithvi (K-15) and BrahMos missiles.

The Agni-III missile, with a 3,500-km strike range meant for China, will be ready by 2010 after a few more tests. Then an advanced 5,000-km range Agni missile, with a third mini-stage being added to the two-stage Agni-III, is also on the anvil.

Similarly, work is also in progress to develop submarine-launched cruise and ballistic missiles under the ‘Sagarika’ project to complete India’s ‘nuclear triad’ — the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from the air, land and sea.