Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system

Context: India successfully conducted the flight test of a Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

 

Key Points

 

About: SMART is a missile assisted release of lightweight Anti-Submarine Torpedo System for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations far beyond torpedo range.

 

Functioning:

 

• SMART, when launched from a warship or a truck-based coastal battery, takes off like a regular supersonic missile.
• It covers most of its flight in the air at lower altitudes with two-way data link from the warship or an airborne submarine target detection system and provides the exact location of the hostile submarine to correct its flight path midway.
• Just when it approaches close enough to the submerged submarine, the missile will eject the torpedo system into the water and the autonomous torpedo will start moving towards its target to take out the submarine.
• Torpedo is a cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater weapon, launched from a submarine, surface vessel, or airplane and designed for exploding upon contact with the hulls of surface vessels and submarines.
• Varunastra is the first indigenous heavyweight ship launched anti-submarine electric torpedo.

Significance:

• Strengthens the country’s maritime strategic capabilities.
• A major breakthrough for stand-off capability in anti-submarine warfare.
• Project 28, approved in 2003, is a class of anti- submarine warship corvettes currently in service with the Indian Navy. It includes INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti.
• Project 75 is a programme by the Indian Navy that entails building six Scorpene-Class attack submarines (Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj, Vela, Vagir and Vagsheer).

SMART system

• The system comprises a mechanism by which the torpedo is launched from a supersonic missile system with modifications that would take the torpedo to a far longer range than its normal range.
• Torpedoes are self-propelled weapons that travel underwater to hit a target.
• They are limited by their range.
• In the mid-2010s, DRDO undertook a project to build capacity to launch torpedoes assisted by missiles.

About Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) System

 

• SMART is a missile-assisted release of lightweight anti-submarine torpedo system for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations far beyond torpedo range.
• It is indigenously developed system by laboratories of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) including Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Ariel Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) and Naval Science and Technology Laboratory (NSTL).
• The mission objectives included missile flight upto the range and altitude, separation of the nose cone, the release of Torpedo and deployment of Velocity Reduction Mechanism (VRM).
• SMART, when launched from warship or a truck-based coastal battery, takes off like a regular supersonic missile.
• SMART covers most of its flight in the air at lower altitudes with two-way data link from the warship or an airborne submarine target detection system and provides the exact location of the hostile submarine.
• The missile will eject the torpedo system into the water and the autonomous torpedo will start moving towards its target to take out the submarine
• The flight test of SMART system has been crucial in capacity building of naval platforms to strike beyond the torpedo range.
• The system will be a significant addition to India’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Recent naval advancements by India

 

• Recently indigenously developed nuclear capable hypersonic missile ‘Shaurya’ with a strike range of around 1,000 km was tested successfully.
• Shaurya is a land-based parallel of the submarine-launched K-15 missile.
• DRDO recently conducted two successful tests of the K Family’s K-4 missiles.
• The missile, developed by the DRDO, has a range of 3,500 km.
• The missile is being developed for integration with India's Arihant class nuclear submarines.
• The Navy has concluded the contract for the Advanced Torpedo Decoy System Maareech, capable of being fired from all frontline warships.
• The nuclear-powered Arihant submarine and its class members in the pipeline are assets capable of launching missiles with nuclear warheads.