India accidently fires a missile at Pakistan
India accidently fires a missile at Pakistan
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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

77 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
I couldn't find a thread on this, but India has apologised after accidently firing a Brahmos cruise missile at Pakistan.

The missile seems to have followed a pre determined flight path headed towards a Pakistani Airbase but seems to have ran out of fuel.

How does one accidently set off a missile during maintenance?

Not exactly what the world needs at this moment in time.

Wills2

28,117 posts

198 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Probably trained by those crack Russian soldiers

Murph7355

40,867 posts

279 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Pakistan must be happy on two fronts...

Moral high ground.

And that the Indian army can't use a fuel pump properly.

Maybe Covid has driven all world leaders just a bit nuts.

Murph7355

40,867 posts

279 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Also, I wonder if such accidents are making anyone start to rethink supply chains more generally....

KAgantua

5,097 posts

154 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Cruise missile... runs out of fuel... launched accidently.... LOL

98elise

31,382 posts

184 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
MuddyK said:
I couldn't find a thread on this, but India has apologised after accidently firing a Brahmos cruise missile at Pakistan.

The missile seems to have followed a pre determined flight path headed towards a Pakistani Airbase but seems to have ran out of fuel.

How does one accidently set off a missile during maintenance?

Not exactly what the world needs at this moment in time.
I've been involved in the aftermath of an accidental missile firing.

During exercises live missiles are often loaded on the launchers along with maybe one test/maintanence missle or a simulator rig. When you go through the firing routine you select the test missle, which gives the launch system the appropriate feedback. If you select the wrong missile then it's going to launch.

These days you are more likely to have the live missiles permenantly in their launch position (ie not stored in a seperate magazine), so selecting a test missile or simulator is even more important during exercises or maintenance.



LimaDelta

7,943 posts

241 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Not now India, not now.

Countdown

47,243 posts

219 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
Slightly O/T but the Brahmos II looks pretty impressive. Mach 8, air-, sea-, and ground launchable 600m range. imagine haiving to face something like that.....

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

77 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
98elise said:
I've been involved in the aftermath of an accidental missile firing.

During exercises live missiles are often loaded on the launchers along with maybe one test/maintanence missle or a simulator rig. When you go through the firing routine you select the test missle, which gives the launch system the appropriate feedback. If you select the wrong missile then it's going to launch.

These days you are more likely to have the live missiles permenantly in their launch position (ie not stored in a seperate magazine), so selecting a test missile or simulator is even more important during exercises or maintenance.
As I have very little understanding of these missiles, are they always pre set for a destination or do you have to manually enter a target before every launch?

There appears to have been a number of turns in the flight path, a flight altitude of 40,000ft and then just drops out of the sky about 300km into the flight.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

77 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
Countdown said:
Slightly O/T but the Brahmos II looks pretty impressive. Mach 8, air-, sea-, and ground launchable 600m range. imagine haiving to face something like that.....
Even so, it's been a long time coming. Pakistan is pretty thin so I guess it was inevitable one day India will be able to hit anywhere in Pakistan.

I just hope this "accidental launch" or anything similar doesn't provoke a war. Indian sub enters Pakistani waters, Indian airstrike in Balakot and now this missile.

What's to say the next event won't lead to a full scale war.

Countdown

47,243 posts

219 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
MuddyK said:
Even so, it's been a long time coming. Pakistan is pretty thin so I guess it was inevitable one day India will be able to hit anywhere in Pakistan.

I just hope this "accidental launch" or anything similar doesn't provoke a war. Indian sub enters Pakistani waters, Indian airstrike in Balakot and now this missile.

What's to say the next event won't lead to a full scale war.
India's been able to hit Pakistan for ages with MRBMs (Agni, Prithvi etc) - there is no competition in terms of quantity or quality (ever since Pakistan stopped being on good terms with the US). A war between them is highly unlikely and the main beneficiary would be China, especially since last year's incident on the LoAC. China is the main rival for India at the moment which is why it's joined "The Quad"

FourWheelDrift

91,825 posts

307 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
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Ran out of fuel on it's way to it's target? Hang on......

The Indian BrahMos Cruise missile "is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile"

Oh that explains it.

98elise

31,382 posts

184 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
MuddyK said:
98elise said:
I've been involved in the aftermath of an accidental missile firing.

During exercises live missiles are often loaded on the launchers along with maybe one test/maintanence missle or a simulator rig. When you go through the firing routine you select the test missle, which gives the launch system the appropriate feedback. If you select the wrong missile then it's going to launch.

These days you are more likely to have the live missiles permenantly in their launch position (ie not stored in a seperate magazine), so selecting a test missile or simulator is even more important during exercises or maintenance.
As I have very little understanding of these missiles, are they always pre set for a destination or do you have to manually enter a target before every launch?

There appears to have been a number of turns in the flight path, a flight altitude of 40,000ft and then just drops out of the sky about 300km into the flight.
I don't know how their cruise missiles work (I've only ever been involved with European/US weapons systems) however it would be very unusual for a missile to have a fixed target. It would make no sense.

At some point you need to give it its target, and it might as well be in the final seconds before launch.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

77 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
98elise said:
I don't know how their cruise missiles work (I've only ever been involved with European/US weapons systems) however it would be very unusual for a missile to have a fixed target. It would make no sense.

At some point you need to give it its target, and it might as well be in the final seconds before launch.
So it can't really be an accidental launch at all right? Missile goes to 40k ft, makes a few course changes, and by chance heads to Pakistan. So that suggests programming? So it can't really be a "malfunction" can it?

It wasn't carrying a warhead, nor did it self destruct. Just seems to have ran out of fuel/ or jammed communications (if that's possible) and just fell out of the sky thankfully not causing any damage or injury.

Weird. Maybe it was a rouge element, but surely he/she would have armed the thing then. Or maybe it was a test Pakistan's defenses kinda thing.

Weird anyhow as Countdown mentioned, the disparity between the armed forces are pretty significant. So what would be the need to "test" anything. Maybe it was just an accident? Weird as it was.

Muddle238

4,362 posts

136 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
I find that hilarious. Europe on the brink of WWIII and someone in India accidentally sits on a red button. Even funnier if it genuinely ran out of fuel. There’s a joke in there somewhere about them not brimming it because of the current price of petrol, and thusly running out before reaching its target, but my brain is too tired to work it out.

(I’m aware these things don’t run on petrol…)

Muddle238

4,362 posts

136 months

Saturday 12th March 2022
quotequote all
I find that hilarious. Europe on the brink of WWIII and someone in India accidentally sits on a red button. Even funnier if it genuinely ran out of fuel. There’s a joke in there somewhere about them not brimming it because of the current price of petrol, and thusly running out before reaching its target, but my brain is too tired to work it out.

(I’m aware these things don’t run on petrol…)

98elise

31,382 posts

184 months

Sunday 13th March 2022
quotequote all
MuddyK said:
98elise said:
I don't know how their cruise missiles work (I've only ever been involved with European/US weapons systems) however it would be very unusual for a missile to have a fixed target. It would make no sense.

At some point you need to give it its target, and it might as well be in the final seconds before launch.
So it can't really be an accidental launch at all right? Missile goes to 40k ft, makes a few course changes, and by chance heads to Pakistan. So that suggests programming? So it can't really be a "malfunction" can it?

It wasn't carrying a warhead, nor did it self destruct. Just seems to have ran out of fuel/ or jammed communications (if that's possible) and just fell out of the sky thankfully not causing any damage or injury.

Weird. Maybe it was a rouge element, but surely he/she would have armed the thing then. Or maybe it was a test Pakistan's defenses kinda thing.

Weird anyhow as Countdown mentioned, the disparity between the armed forces are pretty significant. So what would be the need to "test" anything. Maybe it was just an accident? Weird as it was.
Yes it can be an accidental launch, but most likely be operator error rather than a malfunction.

I can't speak for other forces but tests are done as a matter of routine in ours. Sometimes you do everything for real except fire anything. Sometimes you use something that simulates the missile (electronically). Sometimes you fire (for real) at a target, sometimes you use real targets (aircraft etc) but track, and target only.

If someone fks up you could end up firing a missile when you don't intend to. As I said I've been involved in the aftermath of an accidental live firing, so it does happen.