May 23, 2007: After India has decided to extend, by
another year, the development of its Trishul anti-aircraft missile system, it
has discovered more problems. This despite having several successful test
firings. There are still problems with the guidance system (glitches in 3-beam
accuracy, and getting millimeter wave radar components from a foreign
supplier.) The Trishul system is no stranger to problems. The project was
cancelled in 2003, after two decades of failure and cost overruns. But
developing weapons is politically popular, and worth lots of money to Indian
manufacturers, and corrupt Indian politicians. Although cancelled, the project
was kept going for research purposes, or on the odd chance that it might
eventually prove superior to the Barak system that is being purchased from
Israel, to do what Trishul was designed to do. Barak works, but Trishul is
made-in-India, and that counts for a lot. India is determined to develop a
domestic arms industry that can design and build world class systems. This
takes time, and involves a lot of embarrassing situations like this.
Trishul has been in development since 1983. First
test firing took place in 1991, and the manufacturer declared test firings
completed by 1998. The armed forces, however, rejected the missile, as not
ready for service. So development continued, until 2003, when the project was
cancelled. But the project, which has cost nearly $200 million so far, had
political friends. Development was allowed to continue, even though neither the
army or the navy wants it. The missile has a range of some nine kilometers, and
has suffered mainly from persistent reliability problems, particularly with its
guidance system.
