PINAKA II - THE GOLDEN ARROWS : A COASTAL STUDY

Till now Pinaka has been considered as attack weapon for blitzkrieg attack on surface to surface, but land based targets. But with Pinaka II and later having satellite based navigation available their accuracy can be increased. The CEP (Circular Error Probability) can be decreased to such an extant that individual targets can be hit effectively.

This makes them ideal to use not only on land but to attack high value targets on sea. For 1000+ islands of India and 7000 km maritime border, we need an indigenous coastal defense system. This need has been fulfilled till now with imported systems like Russian Bal coastal defense system. This uses missiles like  Kh-35E to attack sea targets like enemy ships at a range of more than 100 km.

With above facts in mind, Pinaka can be customized to hit enemy ships near Indian shores from Western and Eastern Ghats. The relatively higher ground will give ideal view to defend coastline from enemy sea based attacks. The large areas can be brought under a Pinaka battery quickly. This will shock and destroy any enemy plans to attack our coastal high value targets. These can be both civilian and military areas.

Besides, the high cost of nearly 5 lakhs for one Pinaka missile does not make it an ideal platform for land based use as it becomes as costly as our regular missiles for the same level of destructive power over Himalayas. An ideal land based rocket system should be with only 10 km range and employing rocket ammunition of less than Rs  50,000/- each. So we can fire 100s of these to cover a large area in a quick shock and destroy operation. e.g. As part of an IBG, miniature Pinaka can be used with smaller rockets.

For coastal defense, the Pinaka platform is ideal and can be moved freely over truck based launchers where roads and terrain are ideal for transport. So one Pinaka regiment can protect a city along with Air Defense Cover (ADS) as a defensive offensive weapon system. This will also justify its high cost and utilize its full range capability. So enemy ships can dare to come near our maritime borders.

Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands can also have at least one Pinaka regiment each to provide an offensive capability over and above the ADS, which can only defend against air targets usually and that too at much higher costs in crores.