Agni Missile designers are incompetent: Pakistan scientist

Daily India ^ | 7/9/06

[maxypane]

slamabad, July 10 (IANS) The failure of Agni-III reflected 'incompetence' of the Indian missile designers and planners, said an eminent Pakistani scientist.

They would need to go back to the drawing board and take two to three years, unless 'they borrow something from abroad,' said Samar Mubarikmund, chairman of Pakistan's National Engineering and Science Commission (Nescom).

Claiming that Israel was involved in developing India's missile programme, Mubarikmund said Pakistan, which had an 'indigenous' programme of its own, retained superiority over all others in the South Asian region.

Mubarikmund told The News Sunday that the circumstances narrated by the Indians for the failure of the missile test were 'not acceptable.'

The Indian missile met a disaster as it could not attain the altitude where the first stage is over or the second is even ignited.

He disputed the Indian claim, saying that with the range of 3,500 km, the missile had to go above about 800-900 km while the second stage had to be ignited at 28 to 30 km.

'If the missile fell from the height of 12 km, it establishes that either it's motor rocket, the basics of the missile proved failure or the guidance and control system was faulty. In both the probabilities, Indian technology has been exposed in clumsy manners.'

'It is interesting to watch that Indian missile programme that was initiated by French and US assistance and later New Delhi also borrowed Russian technical support has been facing tragedies from the beginning,' the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The newspaper also quoted from official sources to take pot shots at Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'In fact he (Manmohan Singh) attained high moral ground for his country just to provide cover to constant failures of his country's scientists engaged in developing long-range missiles and they were hesitating from testing the missile,' the sources said.

Pakistan is still maintaining its superiority in missile technology in whole South Asia as it has successfully tested number of missiles with various ranges including Shaheen-II that has the range of the 2,500 km with all remarkably accurate parameters.

These parameters proved in the presence of international neutral empires when the missile hit the target to extent of centimetres accuracy in the Indian Ocean, the sources said.

[tomzz]

India has developed its own atomic weaponry while Pakistan was given its by the Chinese and I would assume the same was true of missiles. I'd also assume that India will shortly surpass Pakistan in anything which it hasn't already. India is a much more serious country than Pakistan.

[sinanju]

True, I read an article showing that all Pakistan's missiles are simply grandiosely renamed NK or Chinese off-the-shelf purchases.

[Ken522]

I see Pakistan has launched many long-range missles of their own design .... what??!

[tomzz]

Biggest problem Pakistan and Saudi both have is people marrying their sisters, aunts, and girl cousins. Both countries are genetic nightmares.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

"...Indian technology has been exposed in clumsy manners."

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Paki missile designers are obviously the most brilliant the world has seen.From no missile in 1989 to nearly 5 different ballistic missiles in 2000 & most of them inducted with less than 2 tests.& That for a country with no aerospace industry to speak of.The Indian & even American designers are wimps compared to them!!!!!!!!!

[MimirsWell]

Oh let the dog bark. We go back to the drawing board, redesign whatever it was that screwed up and let our missile do the talking. This guy is obviously tring to take over where Nuclear Khan signed off as the poster boy of the Pakistani "Scientific" community. Why bother even replying to his shit.

We have capabilities to wipe out Pakistan, its China we're aiming at. Lets not let these mosquitoes distract us from doing what we have set out to do.

[An_Indian]

these dogs did the same barking when GSLV-I satellite launch vehicle failed due to a small error in one of the strap on vehicles. the central computer shut down the launch and saved the rocket. 2 weeks later, we successfully launched the rocket. so will the same happen here. the error will be corrected and the missile will be a success. maybe it may take some more time but this failed test will certainly help the Indian scientists to correct the error.

these pukes have no idea how missiles are developed. if you are developing your own missiles, there will be some failures. people who buy them from china and NK, and induct them after just 1 or 2 tests, will never know the value of failure.

[Gengis Khan]

I suppose Pakis are the ones who regularly launch satellites into space and their rockets never fail. I suppose they are also about to launch an unmanned probe on Moon in 2007. No?

[Gengis Khan]

The Paki scientist are soooooooooooooo competent that their missiles dont ever require testing. /sarc

[voice of india]

Puki scientists are good for nothing but scrubbing off DPRK and chinese labels off their toys and painting them green.And not to forget the arduous task of naming the missile after some god forsaken islamic thug.

[r9etb]

India has orbital capability with their space program -- they're fully capable of building missiles of any range. This was a glitch not unlike that which causes our own missiles to fail from time to time.

This sounds like Pakistani sour grapes.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Pakistan is still maintaining its superiority in missile technology in whole South Asia as it has successfully tested number of missiles with various ranges including Shaheen-II that has the range of the 2,500 km with all remarkably accurate parameters.

I believe that's the Cindy Shaheen-II. ;)

[Gengis Khan]

The Paki scientist are soooooooooooooo competent that they dont even need to design and construct a missile.

[kinetics]

We have capabilities to wipe out Pakistan, its China we're aiming at.

Why does India aim at China? Does China plot to conquer all of India? The disagreements between China and India involve impoverished border territories (Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin), hardly an existential threat for both countries.

[MimirsWell]

The future will be characterized by a resurgent china trying to behave like a superpower. In its quest for resources, it will take down countries around it. I live in China now and I have no doubts about this.

[Southack]

India is a promising ally and will do great things...but a legitimate criticism of India's techs is that they have a *cultural* bias that causes them to think that *their* programming code or their mechanical interface will work without errors 100% of the time.

I can't tell you how many Indian programmers I've hired who would be caught without error checking routines in their programs during routine peer code reviews...as if their programs would never blow up...as if writing error routines was some sign of an admission of inferiority.

No other ethnic group of programmers has shown that level of arrogance.

Granted, some of these programmers were quite good, but even the best among them displayed this same trait. It is clearly a wide-spread cultural issue.

And I mean this as *constructive* criticism. I want to see India do better. The talent is there. It also makes good sense for India to be an ally of the U.S.

No doubt we Americans have cultural flaws, as well. I want to see the U.S. improve, too.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Because China aims at India(via Tibet,Myanmar & Bangladesh) & arms Pakistan.

[MimirsWell]

Point taken. I don't know if it is arrogance as much as a narrower understanding of the applications of the software. Correct me if I am wrong, but if a guy doesn't know all the use-cases, he is bound not to check for exceptions under that use-case. But of course, your assessment might be right too.