Pinaka Rocket: Today’s war has turned into a kinetic and non-contact war. Instead of fighting face-to-face battles on the ground, one’s strength is proved through long-range rockets, missiles, UAVs, and loitering ammunition. Under Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Indian Army continuously increases the range of its rockets. So far, the Indian Army has used to prepare for fighting wars through the Russian multi-barrel rocket launchers Grad and Smerch. But now after the induction of the indigenous multi-barrel rocket launcher Pinaka in the Indian Army, there has been a tremendous increase in the capabilities. Now efforts are on to advance its striking capabilities very rapidly.
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Finally, the day came when India carried out the first successful flight of the Guided Extended Range Rocket. DRDO successfully tested it in three different phases at different firing ranges. All its trials in the high altitude area were completed earlier and now the trials in the plain area were also successful. The Guided Pinaka Weapon System met all the standards set during its test 100%. In which work was done on different targets like range, accuracy, consistency, and rate of fire. Production agencies Tata Advance and Larsen & Toubro and two existing service Pinaka launchers were upgraded. By launching 12-12 rockets from them, the Extended Range Guided Pinaka Weapon System was successfully tested. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh himself congratulated DRDO and the Army for this successful test and said that the Guided Pinaka Weapon System will greatly increase the firepower of the Indian Army.
Why Is This a Game Changer?
If we talk about the Pinaka rocket included in the Indian army’s artillery, then this rocket is free flight, which means that if Pinaka is launched once, it will fall according to its range of 37 kilometers, but this rocket did not have such good accuracy that it could hit the right target; it is an area weapon. But the extended range guided Pinaka is a guided rocket equipped with GPS navigation, which means that once the target is set, after launch it will hit that target accurately.
Talking about its accurate hitting capability, it can hit the target up to 25 meters, which is a better range. This rocket would have been pre-programmed and after launching it will move on the trajectory that has been set. If for some reason it deviates from its trajectory, then with the help of GPS, the onboard computer will take the rocket back to the set trajectory. Not only this, an inertial navigation system (INS) has been installed to support GPS. This is one of the oldest methods of navigation, which was used in ancient times to navigate ships in the sea.
Its Biggest Benefits:
The biggest advantage of this is that even if a satellite breaches the GPS and disrupts it, the rocket will still hit its target through INS. If we talk about the capability of the Pinaka currently included in the army, then if the entire battery is fired simultaneously, it can destroy an area of 1000 x 800 meters of the enemy. Now after the introduction of the guided Pinaka weapon system, it will destroy the enemy. A battery of Pinaka has 6 firing units i.e. launchers and one launcher has 12 tubes.
That means a battery has a total of 72 rockets and all these rockets are launched in just 44 seconds. The special thing is that immediately after launching, the launchers change their location and can then be armed again. However, after this successful test, the way has been cleared for the signing of this new version which will replace the Russian multi-barrel rocket launcher Smerch, which is the longest-range rocket launcher in the Indian Army, in terms of range. Smerch has a range of 90 km. Since its ammunition is very expensive and it is still imported from Russia. Since Pinaka is Indigenous, there will be no problem of shortage of ammunition.
