Archive for the 'Military' Category

Brahmos Missile explained

What kind of name is Brahmos?

BrahMos was named after the rivers of the two countries taking part in developing of the cruise missile.

The initial name being taken from the river Brahmaputra  in India and the later part being taken from the River Moskov in Russia

And hence the name BrahMos.

What is Bhramos ?

BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.

What is a Supersonic cruise missile?

A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many hundreds of kilometers with high accuracy. Modern cruise missiles can travel at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and fly on a non-ballistic very low altitude trajectory to avoid radar detection.

Your wikipedia copy paste answer did not satisfy my query..answer it properly !

Think of this missile as a low flying Kamakazi jet plane…filled with bombs.These missiles travel very close to the surface of the earth and there fore avoid radar detection.These are guided by GPS on how to reach the destined path and hit the target

A video will help explain

In the later part of the video you will see that the missile just cruises along the terrain and is very close to the surface of the earth.

This is what a cruise missile is.

So what is a super sonic cruise missile?

These missiles travel faster than the speed of sound, usually using ramjet engines. The range is typically 100-500 km, but can be greater. Guidance systems vary.

What does  “Guidance systems vary” mean?

Because these missile travel so close to the ground and they turn to avoid obstacles like trees and buildings they need a eye in the sky.They also need to have pin point description of their location so that they can accelerate or decelerate their speeds.

A global positioning system is used to provide this to the Cruise missile.

Here the problem is that the GPS is owned by the US and they can turn it off at their time and will and hence forth we cannot rely on them.

We are developing our own version of the GPS called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

It should be done by 2011.And yes it will guide the Brahmos in event of a war.


Anything  else I need to know?

Well you might be interested in the fact that Bhramos 2 has been developed and tested and is curently being inducted in the Indian Army

here is a test video of it.

Hope you like it

BrahMos II is a hypersonic cruise missile that has been lab tested with a speed of 5.26 Mach making it the fastest cruise missile in the world. BrahMos II is expected to be ready by 2013-14 and will arm the Project 15B destroyers of the Indian Navy.


Bhramos 2 to be inducted by 2011

I want to see it in action !

Okay here is a video of it in action.

Please skip to 0:53 seconds for the actual test.

You can see how accurate the missile is.
It hits the triangly thing in the wall.

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Nuclear Submarine for Dummies

I am not much of a technical guy but I am trying to write this guide for dummies.

If you like it the do comment

What is a nuclear submarine?

A nuclear Submarine is a submarine which uses  nuclear material to generate power for propulsion rather than conventional resources like diesel and Fuel cells

wiki

A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by nuclear reactor technology, as opposed to a more conventional submarine layout consisting of air-breathing diesel engines which are used to charge batteries for underwater running. The performance advantages of nuclear submarines over conventional submarines are large; nuclear propulsion, being completely independent of air, frees the submarine from the need to frequently surface, as is necessary for conventional submarines; the large amounts of power generated by a nuclear reactor allow nuclear submarines to operate at high speed for long durations; and the long interval between refuellings grant a range limited only by consumables such as food – current generations of nuclear submarines never need to be refueled throughout their 25-year lifespans. Conversely, the limited power stored in electric batteries means that even the most advanced conventional submarine can only remain submerged for a few days at slow speed, and only a few hours at top speed; recent advances in Air-independent propulsion have eroded this disadvantage somewhat. The high cost of nuclear technology means that relatively few states have fielded nuclear submarines.

Okay so how is this better than others?

1.A nuclear Submarine can stay under water for months at time .

2.It is very quite as it does not have a engine to generate power but a  nuclear reactor which reduces the noise and hence remains undetectable to enemy sonar

3.Due to its ability to stay under water for long time they avoid getting tracked by satellites when they make perth.

Cool …so what is the big fuss in making them  ?

Making a Nuclear submarine is not easy.This is because you need to miniaturize a  nuclear power reactor.

What is a nuclear power  reactor ?

Flow diagram of a Nuclear reactor

Flow diagram of a Nuclear reactor

Looks simple but on a realistic scale

it looks like this.

Nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

Not so easy now huh!

Now we have to miniaturize a nuclear power plant to the size of a 100sq.meter, with all the safety features intact. :D

The electricity generated from this nuclear reactor is fed to the propeller and the propeller propels the submarine.

So India has made one Huh!

Well yes, Indian has made one and it is named as INS ARIHANT (Destroyer of the enemies)

Is it operational yet?

No not yet.

As this one is the first one made by India till now it will undergo rigorous testing by the navy before it is inducted

So just one?

NO there are two more being made and one being leased from Russia for 10year.

That makes a total of 5?

Yes

Schematics

Schematics

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Indian processors

After facing a lot of hack attempts from Chinese hackers on a daily basis

GOI has decided to make its own processors to add as measure to prevent Chinese hackers from infiltrating into crucial websites

Top scientists at some of the country’s ace scientific institutions are pooling energies, and the government some money, in an attempt to design a home-grown microprocessor, which they hope will ward off the rising threat of espionage into strategic segments like defence, telecom and space.

However, the current plan has national security as the first priority, especially after reports of a global network of Chinese hackers breaking into sensitive installations worldwide, including the headquarters of Dalai Lama in Dharamshala and telecom networks in the UK. Just a week ago, South Korea had complained of an organised effort by North Korea to hack its government network.

“Unless India has its own microprocessor, we can never ensure that networks (that require microprocessors) such as telecom, Army WAN, and microprocessors used in BARC, ISRO, in aircraft such as Tejas, battle tanks and radars are not compromised,” the document points out.Source

For those who do not know GOI has quite some experience in developing semiconductors

Advanced Neumarical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG)

Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG) is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Located in Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad, it is involved in the development of computing solutions for numerical analysis and their use in other DRDO projects.ANURAG was established on May 2, 1988, to support aeronautical design work, with the mandate of executing specific, time-bound projects leading to the development of custom designed computing systems and software packages for numerical analysis and other applications.

Microprocessor Design and Development.

ANURAG has designed and developed general-purpose microprocessors- ANUPAMA and ABACUS. ANUPAMA is a 32-bit RISC processor, and works at 33 MHz clock speed. The complete software development tool kit is available for application development. A single-board computer based on ANUPAMA is available for evaluation and software development. ANUPAMA is also available as an IP core.

ABACUS is a 32-bit processor for multi-tasking applications with virtual memory support. It is designed around ANUPAMA core with additions like MMU, two levels of cache, double precision FPU, SDRAM controller. The IP core of ABACUS is available in Verilog RTL code. This processor is suited for desktop applications. Complete software platform is available for ABACUS processor and a single board computer with ABACUS is implemented. Linux Kernel is ported.

Areas of work

ANURAG helps design and develop advanced computing systems. Much of this research is conducted in state-of-the art concepts like parallel architectures, etc, in order to build up a technology base in these areas. Its areas of work are:

1. Parallel processing technology.
2. System engineering, integration.
3. General purpose microprocessors.
4. 1 micrometre CMOS fabrication technology.
5. Design and development of VLSI chips & SOC development.
6. Processor related technology.
7. System software development for custom made processors

Products

PACE (Processor for Aerodynamic Computations and Evaluation), developed by ANURAG, is a loosely coupled, message-passing parallel processing supercomputer. PACE was originally designed to cater to the Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) needs in aircraft design. It can also be used for other fields such as weather forecasting, automobile & civil engineering design and Molecular Biology. These systems have been built using VME-bus based Pentium processor boards, ATM switches and Reflective Memory communication hardware.

In 1987, India decided to launch a national initiative in supercomputing to design, develop and deliver a supercomputer in the gigaflops range. Complementary projects were initiated in various labs, ANURAG being one of them. PACE was unveiled by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in April 1995.

In late 1998, ANURAG developed the 15 times more powerful “Pace Plus 32″, which can be used to support missile development, as well as other fields. A 128-node PACE++ system, built using Pentium processor based VME boards was unveiled by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in January 2004. The performance of this system is 50 Gigaflops (sustained performance). It has been installed at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. At present work is in progress on parallel processing system based on Linux clusters targeted to deliver 1 teraflop performance.

ANAMICA
ANAMICA (ANURAG’s Medical Imaging and Characterization Aid) is a DICOM compliant three-dimensional medical visualization software for data obtained from any medical imaging system like MRI, CT and Ultrasound. The software has two-dimensional and three-dimensional visualisation techniques to visualize the images in various ways. The sequence of images obtained from any imaging system by scanning of a single patient is packed to form a three-dimensional grid. The software has also been modified for accepting data from Industrial CT systems.

General purpose microprocessors

ANURAG has designed and developed general-purpose microprocessors- ANUPAMA and ABACUS. ANUPAMA is a 32-bit RISC processor, and works at 33 MHz clock speed. The complete software development tool kit is available for application development. A single-board computer based on ANUPAMA is available for evaluation and software development. ANUPAMA is also available as an IP core.

ABACUS is a 32-bit processor for multi-tasking applications with virtual memory support. It is designed around ANUPAMA core with additions like MMU, two levels of cache, double precision FPU, SDRAM controller. The IP core of ABACUS is available in Verilog RTL code. This processor is suited for desktop applications. Complete software platform is available for ABACUS processor and a single board computer with ABACUS is implemented. Linux Kernel is ported.

Other technologies

ANURAG has designed a 16-bit DSP processor, which is available as an IP core and the design is packaged in 120-pin CPGA. It has also designed other processors and arithmetic cores. ANURAG has also been able to fabricate CMOS designs up to 1 micrometre size and with up to 100,000 gates. Die sizes of 14 x 14 mm have been achieved.

Not only will this help sensitive networks safe against Chinese hackers but it will also help the ailing Semiconductor industry to get back on its feet

Its not that the Chinese hackers have only targeted the Indians,they have targeted the Russians

Americans, British & even the Turkish.

So how exactly  will making a chip prevent chinese hackers from hacking Indian websites?

I really don’t know I will read more stuff about it and let you know

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The Indian Hummer

Mahindra & Mahindra is devoloping a High Mobility MultiPurpose Wheeled Vehicle for the Indian Army

What is a High Mobility MultiPurpose Wheeled Vehicle you ask?

An example of a High Mobility MultiPurpose Wheeled Vehicle is a hummer used by the American Army.

The American Hummer
The American Hummer

The Indian Army has recently realized the  need for a Humvee and decided to raise a tender to give private companies in India a boost.

Among th Bidders was our very own Mahindra and Mahindra with their version of the Hummve called the Mahindra AXE

A few pics of it

The open Version of the Indian hmmer
The open version of the Indian hmmer

The Specs are sketchy but they are as follows

Specifications
Weight 2,500 kg curb weight
Length 4.4 m
Width 1.96 m
Height 1.98 m
Engine 5 cyl Diesel
Transmission Automatic
Suspension Independent
Ground clearance 3.5 m
Fuel capacity 100 L

Just for comaprison the spec of the American Humvee

Specifications
Weight 5,200 lb (2,340kg)—5,900 lb (2,680 kg) curb weight[1]
Length 15 ft (4.6 m)[2]
Width 7.08 ft (2.1 m)[2]
Height 6 ft (1.8 m), reducible to 4.5 ft (1.4 m)[2]
Engine 8 Cyl. Diesel 6.2 L (~378 cu in)
or 6.5 L (~397 cu in)[1]
Suspension Independent
Fuel capacity 25 U.S. gal (95 L)[2]
Speed 90 mph(144 km/h)(unarmored)-65 mph (105 km/h)(armored) maximum [3]

So what exactly is a Humvee used for you ask?

A series of pics should do the talking now

Regular defence
Over the Snow
Over the Snow
As an emergency Ambulance
As an emergency Ambulance
Portable Rader
Missile defence
Missile defence

Now who so ever wins the batlte will supply the Indian Army with enough humvees to do all of the stuff said above.

Pics of Mahindra axe

AXE On Army Trails
AXE On Army Trails
Axe on Army trails
Axe on Army trails in a desert

AXe on Army trails
AXe on Army trails

Want to see  the test drive of  Mahindra AXE?


There are plans of releasing a civilian version of this vehicle ..don’t know what it will be called but the price is rumored to be from 12-25 lakhs

The specs are rumored o make it a petrol version and the engine torque and power will be knocked down.You may get a airconditioner and a Fm radio:D

Kidding!

It will be out in a couple of months.

So save your money boys and girls and get your self a hummer.

A Indian hummer

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Shivalik class carrier

Pictures speak louder than words

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