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A more detailed discussion - from the Indian viewpoint.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4395&start=1440

Indian viewpoint? You mean begging for money?

A more detailed discussion - from the Indian viewpoint. http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4395&start=1440

This missile can be launched from undersea position 290 km away from the target:

The missile is in service with the Indian Navy. The missile is fitted on the Rajput class of destroyers. The submarine launched version of the missile is ready for testing. The missile will be either tested on a Kilo class submarine of the Indian Navy or will be tested in Russia.

(Additional link 1 and link 2.)

I would not call 200 miles a close range. A WWII torpedo was a close range weapon; a Shkval torpedo is a close range weapon. I have no idea what is the protected area around the group, but it can't be that large, and even one such missile can give a heart attack to the carrier group commander, if it misses or is shot down. If it doesn't miss then forget the heart attack, there wouldn't be enough time left for that.

Of course, the attack does not have to occur in the air - a common 30 yr old 65-76 torpedo (designed in 1976) has range of about 62 miles - if a CG can protect even that circle it is doing better than good. Officially China and Russia have those.

f you have a carrier group, you own the ocean [...] for the simple reason that you know where you are, and the enemy doesn't.

This is applicable to submarines which may be a part of CG, but the whole group is hard to fail to notice in, say, Persian Gulf. You may not even need binoculars. The attackers found USS Cole with their eyes tightly shut. And that's one of the reasons why Iran seemingly has the following:

In early 2000 it was reported that North Korea and Iran were jointly developing an advanced version of the C-802 missile. The missiles initially acquired by Iran from China were rather outdated, and Iran turned to North Korea for missile system technology. The two countries are jointly developing an upgraded version with improved accuracy.

(quoted from the linked Wikipedia article.)

And of course we should not forget about the older hardware, Iraq has some, and Iran probably also has:

It is based on Shang You (SY), meaning Upstream anti-ship missile, which in turn, was based on the Russian SS-N-2 Styx missile. The missile looks almost identical to the Shang You (SY) anti-ship missile, and has similar performance. It has a maximum range of 95 km, with a 513 kilogram payload. Silkworm missiles are 7.36 metres long, and weigh 2988 kg. They can be launched from semi-mobile (towed) launchers or from ships.

The 95 km range is more than enough to cover the whole area of interest. So the carriers are vulnerable if the incoming missiles are arriving faster, closer to the sea, or in larger quantities than the Aegis can protect against. Wikipedia lists its tracking capacity of 100+ targets (with no mentioning on how many targets can be fired upon, which may be classified, or just dependent on how many ships are available, or both.) So if an opponent initiates a land-based attack they can launch 200 missiles, or 300, all at once - and a few of them will make it through.

But no chance of roads getting better.

Here are some pictures of modern highways http://surajsphotos.fotopic.net/ .

A project which seeks to 4-lane the 5800 km long "Golden Quadrilateral" (linkages between 4 major metros) has been in progress for the past five years and the new government is committed to continuing it.

Here is a comprehensive discussion on Indian roads. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ?t=75

On the main page of the previous site, you will find threads of discussion on India's infrastructure, telecom, etc., i.e., on this page http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php ?f=2&sid=7623067261caec98cadfdd4c9950e47c

Hope that helps.

But no chance of roads getting better.

Here are some pictures of modern highways http://surajsphotos.fotopic.net/ .

A project which seeks to 4-lane the 5800 km long "Golden Quadrilateral" (linkages between 4 major metros) has been in progress for the past five years and the new government is committed to continuing it.

Here is a comprehensive discussion on Indian roads. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ?t=75

On the main page of the previous site, you will find threads of discussion on India's infrastructure, telecom, etc., i.e., on this page http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php ?f=2&sid=7623067261caec98cadfdd4c9950e47c

Hope that helps.

I am from India, and we were in a similar state. We got cheap books from russia translated into english by Mir publishers, Moscow. Once the soviet union collapsed, the cheap books stopped coming too :-(
Many of these books were awesome and I am yet to find some such interesting books in the west. However things started meaning something to us after India sent its first astronaut into space.
All of us wanted to be astronauts and then started the inevitable race to learn as much as we could about science. This guy was responsible(motivation-vise) for landing me in IIT, one of my proudest achievements so far.

Wrong, India sent a man in Space over 15 years ago. Rakesh Sharma became the First Indian Astronaut in 1984 along with the Russians. Check this

• -- world's largest democracy. (no link required)
• -- world's largest standing or deployed land force.
• -- world's largest employer is in India.
• -- Kerala, the state with over 99% literacy (one down, 28 to go :) )
  
  oh and i saved the best for last -- India as a country has 52% literacy.

Few points to note before any 'analysis' is done regarding this matter.

GSLV design is NOT altogether a new design. (In fact I would say it a larger PSLV). The constraints for ISRO to go in for altogether a new design is:

a) Resources - Men, Money, experience etc.

b) Time - it would have taken a considerably longer time to design a new vehicle (though more efficient & larger).

c) Proper test facilities - though we have been in the business of sending rockets up (and sometimes down)for quite sometime now, the test facilities available in India are not up to the desired level, I would say.

d) Launch pad - the existing launch pad was basically designed for PSLV. It is due to the redundant strength (higher factor of safety) that it is able to take the GSLV ; vice-versa, the GSLV had to be designed to suit the launch pad!

Based on above (and may be more) constraints, the scientists had to design a vehicle. Hence they used the PSLV core and Vikas engine for first stage, strap-ons and second stage.

Now the question - isn't it inefficient to carry 17 tons of metal for sixty seconds extra? - Yes it is, but there was no alternative because the strap-ons are attached to it.

Why can't the strap-ons be detached when the solid core is burns out, or extend the solid core burn to 160 seconds?

1. The solid core burns 125 tons for 100 secs - i.e., 1.25 ton / sec

2. the strap-ons burn liquid propellents for 162 secs - i.e., about 250 kg/sec/booster.(similar is the rate for second stage also)

(for a moment assume that the variations in propellent loading at different stages doesn't alter the overall thrust requirement, though that is not the case in reality)

If the strap-ons are to be jettisoned after 100 seconds, then (a) they have to burn the propellent at faster rate or (b) the balance (about 60 tons) propellents will have to be shifted to second stage. Alternately (c) make the solid core burn for 160 secs.

(a)is not possible because:

i) The EXISTING design of the vikas engine doesn't allow this since it must already be working at max trust level and propellent flow rate.

ii) there will be drastic increase in acceleration of the vehicle at lift-off, which will complicate matters further (as such from what I can see from the Video, the accelaration is quite good)

(b) is not possible because:

shifting 60 tons of propellent to stage 2 will make the vehicle "top heavy" - i.e., the centre of gravity will shift upwards making the vehicle unstable. Moreover, since the dia of the first and second stage are same, the additional propellent in stage 2 will make the vehicle very long. Result - the vehicle will tumble into the sea soon after lift-off. So this solution is also not workable.

(c) is not possible because:

being a solid core, the only way to manipulate the thrust/burn rate is by controlling the hollow shape at the core (usually a star shape bacause of large surface area). But if you enlarge or decrease the shape at the core, then it will affect the propellent load and also the burn rate. So this also is not a efficient or viable solution.

Agree, it is a waste of energy to carry 17 tons of casing for 60 secs more. But what is the weight of the vehicle after 100 secs? about 175 tons, which, if the empty shell is discarded would be about 158 tons. The penalty is about 10% additional weight. That is the compromise in design.

Then there is another wastage of about 1.2 tons of propellent when the onboard computer 'tests' the parameters before the solid core ignites..may be they will improve upon these wastages subsequently.

Another point to note is that it is not always true that the more the number of stages, the more efficient the design is..there is always a optimum level, and design as usual is a trade-off