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Will India finally have a dedicated rocket force?

Will India finally have a dedicated rocket force?

TNN / May 17, 2023, 08:36 IST

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Will India finally have a dedicated rocket force?

India is inching closer to the setting up of an Integrated Rocket Force (IRF) amid the continuing military confrontation with China.
Conventional missiles

Efforts are on to expeditiously develop both short-range and long-range conventional missiles for major non-nuclear strikes against enemy targets, even as it also separately consolidates the nuclear-triad for strategic deterrence.
Development of the Pralay ballistic missiles with a strike range from 150 to 500-km has been completed by the DRDO, while the long-range land-attack cruise missiles (LR-LACMs) and submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) will also be ready for production within a couple of years, TOI has learnt.

IRF’s arsenal

The IRF, to be set up in the run-up to the tri-service theatre commands, will have surface-to-surface Pralay tactical missiles, subsonic LR-LACMs, BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket systems and other stand-off weapons.

Acquisitions

The Defence Acquisitions Council headed by minister Rajnath Singh has already given the initial nod or “acceptance of necessity (AoN)” for the Indian Air Force to induct 120 Pralay missiles, which will be followed by another 250 such missiles for the Army.

Why

“All such missiles and rocket systems of the Army, Navy and IAF will be integrated under the IRF for better command and control. This is required especially along the northern borders with China,” a source told TOI.

Strategic command

India plans to keep the IRF and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which was set up to handle the country’s nuclear arsenal in 2003, as separate entities.

PLA Rocket Force

China’s both land-based nuclear weapons and conventional ballistic missiles under the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF), which has around 40 brigades.
With the induction of Pralay, India will jettison its policy of having ballistic missiles only with nuclear payloads. “For India, ballistic meant nuclear till now. But both China and Pakistan have conventional as well as nuclear ballistic missiles,” the source said.

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