India has made its defense system more deadly. Under this, the Rudram missile has become another fatal missile. The New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (Rudram-1) is India’s first indigenous anti-radiation missile developed by DRDO India for Indian Air Force.
It is a first-of-its-kind in the IAF arsenal, providing air superiority and tactical capability to Indian fighter aircraft.
India has established indigenous capability to develop long-range air-launched anti-radiation missiles for neutralizing surveillance and guidance radars, communication towers, command and control centers, and other radiation-emitting targets.
What is Rudram Missile?
Rudram 1 is a target-seeking missile with a radar dome, which is critical for missiles that can target and destroy enemy-based radars on the ground.
Specification
Rudram-1 is a single-stage, approximately 5.5 meters in length, weighs 140 kg, and is powered by a dual-pulsed solid rocket motor.
It has a strike range from 100 to 200 km, depending on the altitude from which it is fired. It has a launch speed from Mach 0.6 to 2 (twice the speed of sound).
Next Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (NGARM’s) primary guidance system is an onboard passive homing head (PHH) armed with broadband capability. These features allow it to choose and select a target among the range of emitters it sees at that point in time.
Using the D-J frequency range, the new NGARM equipped with PHH can detect radio frequency emissions up to 100 kilometers away.
Features
Its most significant feature is its anti-radiation capability, Which is different from other missiles. It neutralizes the security equipment installed in the enemy’s territory. This includes its surveillance radar and other communication systems.
It can be launched from different heights, and this missile is a potent weapon for the Indian Air Force to effectively Suppress Enemy Air Defence from large stand-off ranges.
It employs INS-GPS navigation and a Passive Homing Head for the finishing blow. In a test, The missile’s aim was spot on, and it successfully destroyed the radioactive target.
The Passive Homing Head can detect, identify, and engage targets across a range of frequencies.
Rudram 1 can detect enemy radars on the ground. Once these missiles disarm enemy radars on the ground, they can help inflict more damage in the attacks that follow the first wave.
The missile is comparable to the tactical air-to-surface missile AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile that was inducted by the US Navy only in 2017 and can engage relocatable Integrated Air Defence targets and other targets equipped with shutdown capability.
This means that if the enemy shuts down the radar after the missile is launched, it will still hit the target.
How was Rudram developed?
Rudram is an air-to-surface missile designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The DRDO began developing anti-radiation missiles of this type almost a decade ago. Their integration into fighter jets has been a combined effort of several DRDO facilities, IAF formations, and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
The system has been validated for takeoff from a Sukhoi-30 MKI, but it can be modified for use with other fighter aircraft.
A DRDO scientist said the development was hard because the missiles were meant to be used on fighter jets, which are very complicated and sensitive machines.
These problems included, but were not limited to, the need to develop radiation seeker technologies and guidance systems as well as integrate them with the fighter jet.
How important are these kinds of missiles in air battles?
Rudram, from the Sanskrit Rudra, means “remover of sorrows” and was chosen for the anti-radiation missile by custom.
Anti-radiation missiles, for example, are utilized as a part of SEAD strategies to attack the enemy’s air defense systems early in a fight and to increase the survivability of a country’s own aircraft later on.
Are advanced models of Rudram coming up?
The features of Rudram’s later versions, Rudram-2 and Rudram-3, are largely unknown. Both are speculated to have inertial navigation system – global positioning system (INS-GPS) capabilities and a passive homing head.
Other Countries have this Technology like Rudram.
Apart from India, the US also has such missiles. America’s AGM-88 HARM is a ground-to-air anti-radiation missile. The UK has a similar anti-radiation missile called ALARM (Air Launched Anti-Radiation Missile).
The Royal Saudi Airforce also uses the missile. However, the UK retired the missile at the end of 2013. Russia has named such a missile Kh-58. Its name in NATO is Kilter. Iran’s Hormuz-2 is also called Anti-Radiation Missile.
