The Paper's reporter Xie Ruiqiang
According to photos of the wreckage of the missile, India's accidental launch to Pakistan was a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which India previously said could carry a conventional or nuclear warhead.
The Indian Ministry of Defense issued a statement on the 11th that on March 9, during routine maintenance, the missile was accidentally launched due to technical failures. Pakistan summoned the Indian Chargé d'affaires a.i. to Pakistan to strongly protest the incident.
In the view of analysts, India's accidental missile launch to Pakistan not only exposed the chaos in the management of the Indian army, but also increased the nuclear risk, both countries are nuclear weapons countries, and firing missiles that can carry nuclear warheads to Pakistan is easy to cause misjudgment and is a very dangerous move.
The Pakistani military said that the missile that entered Pakistan this time was the Indian army's "BrahMos" supersonic cruise missile.
What kind of missiles did India accidentally launch?
The Indian government said in a statement that on March 9, local time, during a routine maintenance, a "technical failure" led to the accidental launch of a missile and the missile landed in Pakistan, the incident is "deeply regrettable", fortunately did not cause casualties. India has ordered the commencement of a high-level investigation.
India's Ministry of Defense did not disclose the specific model of the missile and the location of the launch. However, according to Pakistani media reports, the missile flew into an area of Pakistan's Punjab province. According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, the Pakistani military said that a "high-speed flying object" launched from the direction of India fell into Pakistan and destroyed a wall in a civilian area, but did not cause casualties. A Pakistan Air Force spokesman later said that pakistan had found fragments of the missile, which were confirmed to be India's Brah Morris cruise missiles.
The BrahMos missile is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia, with a maximum flight speed of about Mach 3 and a missile range of about 290 kilometers, which can attack ships at sea and fixed targets on land. The missile is a common cruise missile of the army, navy and air force, and is available in land-based, sea-based and air-based models, and the Indian Navy and Army were the first to be equipped with this type of missile.
In addition to the existing basic type, India is also developing an extended range Brah Mos missile and a hypersonic model, with an extended range range increased from 300 km to 450 km. Indian officials have previously said the extended-range BrahMos missile is significant and paves the way for India to develop the next level of supersonic long-range tactical cruise missiles.
The hypersonic model, known as the BrahMos II missile, has technical links to the Russian Zircon hypersonic missile. Indian media reported that the performance indicators of the "Brah Mos" II missile have been improved, the range has increased to more than 600 kilometers, the maximum flight speed can reach Mach 8, and the combat capability has been greatly improved.
According to the location of the discovery of the wreckage of the missile, the accidental launch should be a land-based "BrahMos" missile, and each launcher is equipped with 3 missile launchers. In 2016, the Indian government approved the Army's procurement of nearly a hundred upgraded Brah Morris supersonic cruise missiles and plans to deploy them in the northeast of the country. At present, the Indian Army has deployed at least 3 "BrahMos" missile regiments, each of which has 4-6 platoons, each platoon is equipped with 3 or 4 launchers, and the entire missile regiment has about 72 missiles.
"In the Indian army, navy and air force equipment system, the 'BrahMos' missile is regarded as the core weapon of long-range strikes, and in the Indian Army, the missile is mainly used to carry out precision strikes against important targets such as the enemy's forward command post and front-line airport, and forms a cascade firepower configuration with long-range rocket artillery and 'land' tactical ballistic missiles." Missile expert Li Wensheng told The Paper (www.thepapercn).
In addition to extensively equipping india's three armed forces, India is also actively marketing this missile to other countries. In January, India and the Philippines reached a military trade deal worth about $375 million to export brahmos supersonic anti-ship missiles to the Philippines. This is the first export contract between India and Russia to jointly develop the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile, and will pave the way for India to sign more such agreements with other ASEAN countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
The wreckage of the BrahMos missile that fell into Pakistani territory.
Outside concerns have led to miscalculations
According to the report, before the Indian side made its statement, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian chargé d'affaires a.i. in Islamabad to protest India's groundless violation of Pakistan's airspace. The Pakistani side said that this incident may endanger passenger flights and civilian lives, reminded the Indian side to pay attention to the unpleasant consequences caused by similar negligence and take effective measures to avoid similar violations in the future.
"According to the Indian military's statement that a 'malfunction' occurred during the 'routine maintenance' period, this vague statement is likely to be to give the Pakistani side a statement to avoid the escalation of the situation," military expert Han Dong analyzed, "it may be that the troops accidentally launched during simulated training, or there was a problem with the missile guidance system during the training launch, and yaw flew to Pakistan, but in any case, it exposed the chaos of the Indian army's internal or military industry management." ”
The chaotic internal management of the Indian army has long been well known to the outside world, and it has been frequently reported, and it has caused many major casualties.
In August 2013, an Indian submarine sank due to a missile explosion.
On January 18 this year, the Indian Navy destroyer HMS Ranville exploded at the Mumbai Naval Shipyard, killing three naval personnel and injuring 11 others. This is the second major accident involving the Ranville since last October. Last October, the destroyer caught fire and burned four people after participating in the Malabar military exercises jointly held by India, Japan, Australia and the United States.
In August 2013, an Indian Navy Russian-made Kilo-class conventional submarine had an accident during the crew's missile loading work during a port berthing, and the missile exploded inside the boat, causing a major accident in which a submarine sank and a submarine was injured, resulting in the death of 18 people, which is also the largest accident in peacetime by the Indian Navy's submarine force.
In the military industry, the production, manufacture, management, and application of high-tech weapons and equipment also appear from time to time that the sense of responsibility of technicians and workers is insufficient, and major mistakes are repeatedly made. For example, when the Indian shipyard built the "Vikrant" aircraft carrier, it also undertook another 30,000-ton standard container ship and two double-decker large tankers at the same time, and the shipyard workers actually laid the pipeline of the aircraft carrier and welded it incorrectly.
The accidental missile launch accident has raised concerns about internal problems in the Indian military or increasing the risk of nuclear miscalculation in South Asia.
According to Indian officials, the Brah Mos cruise missile can carry a conventional warhead or a nuclear warhead.
Reuters published articles pointing out that military experts had warned of the risk of chance or miscalculation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The "Global Nuclear Forces Development Trend 2020" report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Sweden pointed out that India is currently gradually expanding the size of its nuclear arsenal, and the "Trinity" nuclear force has corresponding weapons development programs, and its number of nuclear warheads is expected to be 150, an increase of about 30 from the 110-120 assessed in 2016. Pakistan has about 10 more nuclear warheads than India, reaching 160.
Responsible editor: Li Yiqing Photo editor: Jiang Lidong
Proofreader: Luan Meng