| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| China says India underplaying Agni, it can hit Europe |
| 2012-04-21 |
| BEIJING: China's strategic experts and the official media are trying to provoke western countries saying the Agni-V missile has a longer range than India would admit, and it can hit cities in Europe. In comments that are obviously authorized by the defence ministry, Chinese experts said the Indian missile actually has a range of 8,000 kilometers and not the shorter range of 5,000 kms, as claimed by India. There are signs China will try to pressure the US and Russia not to sell missile guidance systems to India. "The missile brings the whole of Asia, 70 per cent of Europe and other regions under its strike range and puts India among a select band of countries in the world to possess the technology of intercontinental ballistic missiles," the official Xinhua news agency said in a dispatch published in dozens of Chinese newspapers. Another paper, the Global Times, even carried a map showing Moscow, Tehran and Jakarta among cities coming within the range of Indian missiles. An expert at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences said the Agni-V actually has the potential to reach targets 8,000 kilometers away, according to the Communist Party-controlled Global Times. It quoted the researcher, Du Wenlong, saying the Indian government had deliberately downplayed the missile's capability in order to avoid causing concern to other countries. "According to China's standard, an ICBM should have a range of at least 8,000 kilometers. The Agni-V's range could be further enhanced to become an ICBM," the paper quoted another expert, Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor with the People's Liberation Army National Defence University, as saying. But some Chinese experts have raised questions about New Delhi's capability to actually use the missile. "India does not posses high-precision guidance system. To make up for the shortfall, it has to buy it from US and from Russia. These counties may be reluctant to sell their most advanced technology," the official China Central Television quoted some experts as saying. CCTV even questioned India's infrastructure capabilities. "The missile weighs 50 tonnes. It has no suitable loading vehicle to transport it. Due to India's poor infrastructure, the country's bridges and roads cannot bear the weight of the missile". "So far, it can only be launched from a fixed position. Even though it was successful, it will take a long time to build an operational missile force," it said. In the Global Times interview, Zhang suggested the Agni-V would help India rise from a regional to a world power. China must work on developing defence systems against the threat of ballistic missile. "It is India's goal to possess an ICBM, as the country seeks to improve its status and become a major world player. Without it, India will remain a regional power," Zhang said. By itself, the Agni-V will not take away China's superiority in this technology, Zhang said. "But for the sake of regional stability, China should continue to develop defence systems against ballistic missile threats," he said. The Communist Party's main organ, the People's Daily, ran a commentary, "Risks behind India's military build-up" saying the Agni-V development shows Indian's intention to seek a regional balance of power. "However, in the context of the eastward shift of global economic power and the changing Asian geopolitical pattern, India should cooperate with neighbouring countries and reduce its own persecution mania," it said. China successfully conducted its first ground-based mid-course ballistic missile interception experiment in January 2010, becoming the second country in the world to conduct this kind of missile defence test, the local media pointed out. These views, mostly fuelled by experts connected to China's ministry of defence, were different in tone and content from comments made by the foreign affairs ministry on Thursday. The foreign affairs ministry said China was for "cooperative partnership" with India as it was not a rival. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #9 INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Sino-PHIL = Scarborough Shoal, SCS Disputes] PEOPLE'S DAILY: NO STORM CAN SHAKE CHINA'S COMPOSURE. and * SAME > CHINA'S MILITARY WARNED THE UNITED STATES ON US-PHILIPPINES MILITARY EXERCISE. Beijing's frustration oer its perception that the US-Allies are trying to obtruct its "Manifest Destiny" = rise to "post-US" World #1 Power + Influence, etc. may cause it to stop playing nicey feeley along the "First Island Chain" + START SHOOTING, JUST BECUZ THEY CAN??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-04-21 23:36 |
| #8 ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [NYT = Reuters] CHINA WARNS OF [Military] CONFRONTATION OVER [disputed = SCS] SEAS. US-PHIL MILEX raising high degree of risk of potential confrontation in SCS between China + US + PHIL, ASEAN. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-04-21 23:09 |
| #7 John, interesting background. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2012-04-21 21:22 |
| #6 After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted Soon after Independence he separated the army, navy, and air force from a unified command and abolished the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces, thus bringing down the status of the seniormost military chief. He continued to demote the status of the three service chiefs at irregular intervals in the order of precedence in the official government protocol, a practice loyally continued by successive governments to the benefit of politicians and bureaucrats. During the 1947-48 war with Pakistan in Kashmir, Nehru interfered with purely military decisions at will, which delayed the war and changed the ultimate outcome in Pakistan's favour. He developed a precedent to violate channels and levels of communications at that time. His penchant for verbal orders to the various army commanders, of which he kept no records, violated the chain of command. Menon, along with Nehru, caused havoc in the army's working, disregarding professional opinion and advice, violating all channels and levels of communication and encouraging the same within the army hierarchy, which ended with disastrous results in the Sino-Indian conflict. Like his boss, Menon believed in giving verbal orders and disliked records. When the prime minister and the defence minister give an ear to a junior general over the heads of other generals, including the army chief, and the junior boasts about this, the morale and effectiveness of the senior officers is bound to suffer, even as the army hierarchy begins to disintegrate. This is just what happened progressively in 1961-62. The cancer eventually entered the mainstream services and though there are strong tendencies to counter such evils ingrained within the armed forces culture, it is slowly but surely spreading, thanks to the generally weak Indian character. After the infamous 'Jeep scandal' (purchase of Jeeps for the use of the army, which the army rejected on account of their poor condition, but was forced to accept since the Jeeps were already paid for), it became necessary to remove Krishna Menon, who had fixed that deal, from the post of high commissioner to the United Kingdom because of political and media pressure. |
| Posted by: john frum 2012-04-21 15:45 |
| #5 Yep. It can hit a lot of places. Really doubt any Agnis will be aimed at Europe or Africa though. Ironically Indian PM Nehru was going to scrap the Indian Army. It was the Chinese invasion that changed things. You can scrap the army "I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation." Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963 The roots of politicisation of the army are to be found in Nehru's hatred for the man in uniform. Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru. Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs." He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces. |
| Posted by: john frum 2012-04-21 15:42 |
| #4 "China says India underplaying Agni, it can hit Europe" More importantly, it can hit China. Just sayin' |
| Posted by: Barbara 2012-04-21 14:44 |
| #3 Chinese propaganda isn't what it used to be. Perhaps they exported their best to North Korea? What this says is that the Chinese really, really don't like the Agni. All the more reason for India to deploy the missile. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2012-04-21 14:44 |
| #2 The Agni-5 has three stages, with the second and third stage built of composite materials. The next missile will have a composite first stage as well, making it lighter and, therefore, able to carry a heavier payload than the 1.5-tonne payload of the current Agni-5. According to DRDO sources, an MIRV payload would be significantly heavier since it would consist of several nuclear warheads, each weighing about 400 kg. A five-warhead MIRV, therefore, would weigh two tonnes. The Chinese proliferation strategy to its proxies isn't working out too well |
| Posted by: john frum 2012-04-21 13:28 |
| #1 Somehow I don't think guidance systems will be a problem DRDO chief said that a lot of new technologies developed indigenously were successfully tested in the Agni 5 Mission. Mr. Saraswat said the redundant Navigation Systems, very high accuracy Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System,RINS and the most modern and accurate Micro Navigation System (MINS) ensured the Missile reach the target point within few meters of accuracy. He said the high speed onboard computer and fault tolerant software along with robust and reliable bus guided the Missile flawlessly. ISRO in active mode for Mars mission |
| Posted by: john frum 2012-04-21 13:17 |