SOURCE: KR RAMESH KUMAR / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG
Russian Main Battle Tanks have failed! is what Western media could want the world to believe and pictures of Russian tanks in disarray or damaged beyond repairs have been flooded the internet even though the amount of next-gen western anti-tank missile tech has been supplied to Ukraine, the kill ratio seems pretty much not what Russia could like but it not bad, but what has been a silver line for the Russian military complex its is that it still has massive short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and cruise missile that have been used to flatten high-value targets in Ukraine.
Even after 50 days of War, Western analysts are still mystified how the Russian military complex is still able to keep up with supplies of SRBM and cruise missiles that have been used o hit military targets with pinpoint accuracies. Western analysts for weeks have been predicting that the Russians are low on tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles and every few days they are proved wrong by the Russians.
A big takeaway for the Indian Military topnotch could be not so impressive performance of the Russian tanks in urban settings of the war but what they will take note of is that the Russians have managed to rain tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles so effectively that even Western analysts have been stunned by their performance.
Road-mobile short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) and cruise missiles have shown that conventional firepower can blunt most of the attacks and can be used to take out critical infrastructure and military complexes. India should take note and expand its cruise missile fleet and expand in the development and procurement of air-launched and ground-launched cruise missiles with both subsonic and supersonic projectiles.
India’s reliance on expensive Brahmos is still a overkill for low-value targets and India’s own very own sub-sonic cruise missile tech is still a few years away from entering mass production. when it comes to air-launched cruise missiles situation is pretty bad since only Su-30 and Rafale have some inventory of ALCM but it is enough to fight a prolonged war ? not really! India will have to fast track the intake of both supersonic and sub-sonic cruise missile systems and built up its inventory if it ever has to face a two-front war in near future.
Indian Army for some reason has resisted attempts to procure short-range ballistic missiles in large numbers. Shaurya surface-to-surface tactical missile that was first tested in 2011 didn’t impress Army much and DRDO had to wait till 2020 to revive the program again after finding its utility in the conflict zone but it is still not clear if it has entered mass production since then there is no public confirmation about it but Pralay and Prahaar were supposed to take up this role but it seems they are too still stuck in an endless loop of developmental and user trial circle with not clarity when they will be inducted.