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Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military
Subject: SA-12 "Giant" for India

Mumbai, Dec 19: INDIA is all set to deploy a mobile 'integrated theatre defence system' to throw a missile umbrella over northern India for protection against the threat of Pakistani M-11 ballistic missiles.

According to senior DRDO officials, the system would be an integration of the formidable Russian S-300V Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile (ATBM) system, the indigenous "Rajendra" phased array radar and the "Akash" long-range surface to air missile(SAM).

"With missilery now becoming very much a part of the continent's armoury, we are moving from an era of tactical war to strategic war", said a senior DRDO official, adding that the Patriot-like system would come into operation around 1998.

While the area defence involves protecting vital installations, the theater defence is about defending areas of over 300 sq kilometers including cities from enemy missile attacks.

The official said the DRDO program which was begun in the early 90's was accelarated following Pakistan's recent acquisition of M-11 ballistic missiles. Negotiations for acquiring at least six S-300V missile system(code named SA-12 Giant by NATO) from Russia began two years ago and DRDO officials have been visiting Russia to study it.

An Indian defence delegation was witness to a firing demonstration of the S-300V at the Kapustin Yar test grounds in Russia in August last year. "Negotiations are more than half-way through and we expect to sell the system to India soon", said Oleg Sidorenko, Deputy Director General Rosvoroozhenie, at the recently held Aero India '96 in Bangalore.

"We were looking for a radar that could detect ballistic missiles at extreme ranges of over 1,000 kms and has a height finding capability with minimum warning time of five minutes to enable us to activate our anti-ballistic missile defences" said a DRDO official.

Primarily developed by DRDO as an anti-aircraft missile, Akash has a range of 25 kms and its in-built active control mechanism is capable of being precisely guided in to an incoming ballistic missile.

This is integrated with the Rajendra phased array radar which can simultaneously track 64 targets at a range of up to 60 kms. Both the weapon systems are to be ready by 1998 and will be integrated with the Russian S-300V.

Captured in grainy Cold War photographs in the 1980s, the Antey S-300V mobile multichannel all wather missile system made its first public appearance at the Franborough show in 1992.

The S-300V uses two types of missiles to provide air cover from battlefield and theater ballistic missiles and all types of aerodynamic weapons including the cruise missiles.

The system formed an integral part of the Soviet air defence system and is similar to the US "Sprint ATBM" system cancelled in the 1960s. A number of S-300s have already been sold to China and even to the US. the ATBM is a market rival of the US made Patriot missiles made famous during the 1991 Gulf war.