Many precision technologies developed indigenously as part of India’s ballistic missile defence programme, commenced around 20 years ago, have been critical in making the March 27 anti-satellite missile test successful, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy said. “We have been one of the four countries in the world that have been actively pursuing a ballistic missile defence programme….The basic technologies and ideas emerged out of the ballistic missile defence programme gave the confidence to take up the critically complex mission like anti-satellite missile test, or Mission Shakti,” Dr Reddy said while participating in an event here. The technological capability to carry out such critical mission that required accurate and precise equipment, sensors and systems emerged from the background of the technologies that had been developed for ballistic defence system. “That is how the discussions started 2-3 years ago and approval to go for the anti-satellite mission came in 2016,” he said narrating the chronological sequence of the March 27 test. Anxiety, enthusiasm, and tension that the scientists involved in the programme went through in those 3 minutes between the missile launch and the destruction of the target satellite were quite memorable and would last a lifetime, the DRDO chief said. Nearly 150 to 200 scientists were part of the mission. “Even for the scientists who have worked on the mission, imagining that type of situation was a dream,” Dr Reddy said. Explaining the nitty-gritties involved, he said the mission required a lot of precision as the relative velocity between the satellite, which was moving at nearly 7.8 km per second and the kill vehicle with a velocity of 3 km per second, was around 11 km per second. As there is no warhead involved, the seeker had to hit and destroy the satellite at its geometric centre, Dr Reddy said. “This required centimetres of accuracy. That is the type of accuracy and precision, that is the type of timing and synchronisation and that is what our scientists have done and achieved,” the DRDO Chairman said to the thunderous applause from the gathering, mainly consisting of school and college students. According to him, the entire operation was an automatic operation, right from the missile launch to the satellite destruction and hence the algorithms need to be very precise. The scientists carried out nearly 1,000 simulations before the actual mission was conducted. The entire mission was indigenously designed and built, with Indian industry contributing by developing around 2,000 subsystems used in the mission. Nearly 150 to 200 Indian firms have contributed to it, Dr Reddy said.
Source: http://defencenews.in
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