The new leaked pics show S5 without hump. What do you make of it? And with such a huge missile, I reckon the range even with 3 MIRV is well beyond 5,000 km!
Why would they be doing it now with streamlined hull? Or perhaps these leaked pics are of P77?
Could you post all the leaked images of SSBN models so far ? @RationalGuy ?
With 13 meter length it's possible to have streamlined hull given that SSBN beam is around 13 to 13.5 Meters..... this missile is massive....... Second stage alone is 10 Tones, First 50 Tonnes, third will be 3 to 5 tonnes...... whole missile would be around 63 to 65 Tonnes give or take.
Fully compatible with world standard, booster stage with Isp > 254s for land version and 266s for SLBM , and upper stage with Isp 273s HTPB+AP+AL with binder. French got solid fuel in 268s range. My assumption is that payload will be around 4-4.5ton with a very conservative estimate. 10 mirv each weighing ~ 300-370kg plus countermeasure around 450kg, the liquid fuel stage is reliable & efficient now.
The range figures we quote is a Govt mandate of use case range. It does not reflect the launch vehicles capacity. Actual LV is far more robust.
The top stage with payload needs to have one that is to deliver much higher isp for greater effect, and liquid fuel use is a natural choice. Even Agni 2 rv also house that high altitude motor HAM with liquid propellant inside.
Will also help in better maneuverability.
Why would SLBM have that many variants made when it is a 2nd strike option weapon? The more variant you make, the more complex it becomes when you consider fitment within a sub and launch from underwater. The missile itself traverses from silo canister to water medium then again transition from there to atmosphere air condition so the boundary interaction is complex. Hence SLBM is unlikely to diversify like the land variants which has more design choice freedom (non uniform airframe, aerodynamic less stringent).
So this is effectively the K6 then? I recall reading somewhere that K5 would only be an ER version of K4 with largely the same dimensions. This test booster is 2X dia which would better fit the known specs of K6.
All the tech bases mentioned above are realised and applied in K5 itself, aerospike to extendible nozzle also notice the interstage pyro bolt based stage separation mechanism very short compared to the interstage used in land systems. So if you make a 2.4m dia article fit inside the sub, it is unlikely to develop a slimmer new version again. Much better to decrease stage length than change the diameter which can be done only if the solid propellant is even more powerful. But solid fuels have hit the upper circuit in terms of Isp now, can not be meaningfully increased more. Either use liquid fuel or a hybrid motor and both are tricky. Sarmat is heavy for that reason, very high thrust delivered but extremely complex to make & maintain + failure prone.
Believe it or not, Sandeep Unnithan in his piece on the P77 prog a couple of years back even alluded to a K8 slbm variant being in the works.
Even the current K 4 missile's Canister is 13 m long, and from what hydrodynamic models of S5 we have seen so far I very much doubt your numbers
These numbers are just my thoughts, ofc I can be wrong
The length is coming out wrong because of perspective warping, the picture of poster itself was taken from an angle and the image of the cannister in the poster already had a lot of perspective warping, so I would no fret too much over the dimensions right now.
Yeah it found one citation in one of the defence co Quarterly projection report.
The most recent I've seen is the one you posted which doesn't have a hump.
My God thats 120 warheads per sub
. The only critical piece of the puzzle is what is the yield of these warheads? Considering their weight and size they must be in the hundreds of kt. Of course, whether it is boosted fission or pure fusion will change the yield. I'd reckon they are indeed 250 kt hydrogen MIRVs.
