Pakistan has expressed concern over the United States' recent approval to sell NASAMS II
to India.
NASAMS is an abbreviation for National/Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System.
Aisha Farooqui, Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying by Associated
Press of Pakistan, “The decision of US will have serious impact
on the stability of the region,” The $1.867 billion sale was greenlighted by
the US earlier.
With the IADWS, India plans to fortify its capital city, New Delhi, by erecting a multi-layered
missile shield.
The officials in the Indian defense ministry were quoted as saying by the Indian media
in mid-2019, “The networked system, capable of even shooting
around buildings, will take care of 9/11-like and other close-in threats”.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why Pakistan is worried by India acquiring NASAMS
II from the U.S?
Let’s get started.
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India is planning to have an Integrated Air Defense Weapon System (IADWS) to protect the
capital of India - New Delhi.
The proposed multilayer arrangement will consist of the following :
1.
The outermost layer of the missile shield will consist of a two-tier ballistic missile
defense (BMD) system developed by India's state-run DRDO or Defence Research and Development
Organisation.
The two-tiered BMD System consists of the PAD (Prithvi Air Defense), which will intercept
missiles at exo-atmospheric altitudes of 50 to 80 km or 31 to 50 mi and the AAD (Advanced
Air Defense) missile for an interception at endo-atmospheric altitudes of up to 30 km
or 19 miles.
The BMD system uses the Swordfish radar.
Swordfish is an Indian active electronically scanned array (AESA) long-range tracking radar
specifically developed track ballistic missiles.
It can spot objects as small as a cricket ball (3-inches in diameter) at ranges of up
to 500 mi or 800 km.
As per reports, the process is going on to increase the range of radar to around 950
ml or 1,500 km.
2.
The middle layer will be the Russian made S-400 system.
S 400 Triumph is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed by Russia’s Almaz Central Design
Bureau in the 1990s as an upgrade of the S 300 family.
it has been in service with the Russian armed forces since 2007.
It is designed to defend against aircraft including 5th generation stealth fighters,
bombers, AWACS, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.
The radars of S 400 have a range of around 600 km or around 370 miles.
The main radar is complimented by target acquisition radars some of which are touted to have the
ability to detect stealth aircraft.
S 400 deploys multiple missiles to cover its strike envelope and can hit targets at a range
of up to 400 km or 250 miles.
India has inked a deal with Russia to get 5 regiments of S 400, the contract is worth
5.5 Billion USD.
The delivery is expected to commence by the end f this year.
3.
The innermost layer of protection will be through NASAMS II.
We will now check the capabilities of NASAMS II.
NASAMS is built by Raytheon Corporation and Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace.
The Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace teamed up with Raytheon and initiated the
NASAMS program as a cooperative effort for the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
The network-centric air defense system NASAMS was declared fully operational capable in
1998 but had an initial operational capability as early as in 1994/95.
The Royal Norwegian Air Force together with Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace conducted
a mid-life update of NASAMS, called NASAMS 2, and the upgraded version was first handed
over to Royal Norwegian Air Force in mid-2006.
The major difference between the two versions is the use of Link 16 on NASAMS 2 as well
as a better ground radar.
Full operational capability (FOC) was expected for 2007.
The major difference between the two versions is the use of Link 16 on NASAMS 2 as well
as a better ground radar.
Full operational capability (FOC) was reached in 2007.
A complete NASAMS II battery consists of 12 missile launchers (LCHR) (each one carrying
six AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles), eight radars (AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel F1 Improved Sentinel X
band 3D radar), one fire control center (CTOC), one electro-optical camera vehicle (MSP500)
and one Tactical Control Cell (TCC) vehicle.
The mobile launcher can be deployed and remotely controlled up to 25 km or around 15.5 miles
away from the fire control center.
Each launcher can fire the six AMRAAMs in seconds against six different targets enabling
multiple simultaneous engagements.
Since 12 launchers are present with 6 missiles each, the system can target up 72 targets
simultaneously.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is a 3D radar used to alert and queue Short Range Air Defense
(SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces.
It is an X-band range-gated, pulse-Doppler radar system.
The antenna uses phase-frequency electronic scanning technology, forming sharp 3D pencil
beams covering large surveillance and track volume.
The radar automatically acquires, tracks, classifies, identifies and reports targets,
including cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and both rotary- and fixed-wing
aircraft.
It uses a high scan rate (30 RPM) and operates at a range of 40 km (25 mi).
The radar is designed with high resistance to electronic countermeasures (ECM).
Mounted on a towed platform, it can be positioned remotely from the rest of the unit, operated
autonomously and communicate with the Fire Direction Center (FDC) via a wideband fiber-optic
link.
It can also distribute its data over a SINCGARS radio network.
The AMRAAM (AIM-120), was developed and is best known as an air-launched fire and forget
missile deployed on the F-16, F/A-18, F-22, Eurofighter, JAS-39 Gripen to name a few.
NASAMS II uses the AIM-120C7.
The AIM-120C-7 development began in 1998 and included improvements in homing and greater
range.
AIM-120C7 incorporates an upgraded antenna, receiver, signal processor, and new software
algorithms to counter new threats.
The use of smaller system components created room for future growth.
Mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security
policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would
cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons
against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons.
The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which, once armed, neither side has any
incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.
This balance will be disturbed if any country is able to field a fully functional missile
defense system that can defend against the enemy’s missile.
So, strong Indian missile defense will be decremental to Pakistan’s missile arsenal.
NASAMS II deal will reinforce an ever-growing Indo U.S defense partnership.
The US said that the proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of
the United States by helping to strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship and to
improve the security of a major defensive partner, “which continues to be an important
force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and
South Asia region”.