Vindicating Mi-35 Hind Gunships of Indian Air Force

During the Kargil conflict of 1999, the performance of Mi-35 gunship helicopters (export versions of Mi-24) of the Indian Air Force was severely criticised by Indian Army. Air Force came up with many excuses but it was never fully exonerated.

Now the hot borders between India and Pakistan can possibly give a chance to vindicate (or re-vindicate) the name of Hind gunships and their crews. With timely intelligence and vigilance at borders, many planned attacks can be foiled or averted even before they are tried. But is it possible to succeed even when the plans have been compromised? It is this possibility that Indian military command is looking into.

Hind Gunship helicopters of IAF have been given the Mission 24 upgrade by IAI and they are now capable of low-level flying at night and also launching strikes at night. But the problem with helicopters is that they can't penetrate deep behind the border or LoC. Their slow speed means that their chances of escape and safe egress are not high.

An alternative is to use gunship helicopters only for destroying early warning radars of air defence and then follow the attack with strike fighters like the Su-30 Flanker. This obviously would be coordinated in time and space with air raid following shortly after the attack on the radar stations. With radars out of action, it would be very hard for PAF to see the situation in the air and guide its own planes for interception.

In this scenario, now there are two aspects. One, ensuring safety and survival of radars by either changing their position or replacing them with fake ones. It is possible that if the first phase is unsuccessful, the second phase might not follow at all.

With Mi-35 units based at Pathankot air base (according to order of battle), the likely theatre is again the LoC or its surroundings like the Working Boundary etc.

Deceptions of Brahmos Missile Design

The deception used with Brahmos Missile is in its air intake design. Public photos show a fixed intake cone (conical centrebody). Such a cone is technically called conical shock centrebody because it creates a conical shock wave in front of the missile at supersonic speeds. Unlike shown in the public photos, this nose cone has to be moveable (moving forward and backward at varying speeds). 

It is the same as used in Mig-21 fighter aircraft air intake or Mirage-III's half-cone air intakes. Both in Mig-21 and Mirage-III, these cones are moveable and not fixed. It has to be moveable in Brahmos missile too. The engine in Brahmos is a ramjet engine, it is not a scramjet engine. Ramjet engine uses subsonic combustion even at supersonic speeds. Shockwaves are used to slow down the air flow to the subsonic speed. 

Now this has other serious implications for the missile too. The radar seeker shown on the electronic media has to fit inside the moveable nose cone, which means a very reduced size for the antenna and a very complicated design which is highly unlikely for a missile. Such missiles (e.g., British Sea Dart) use semi-active radar guidance with antennas fitted to the nose of the missile or they are passive. This means that such missiles home in on the radio or radar emissions from the target themselves OR an external source of guidance is needed.