Which one of the following is correct about ‘Pinaka’?
- (a)It is a multi-barrel rocket system.
- (b)It is a type of battle tank.
- (c)It is an advanced submarine.
- (d)It is an indigenously developed drone system.
Correct — A, It is a multi-barrel rocket system. Pinaka is a truck-mounted multiple launch rocket system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, with design work from the mid-1980s and prototypes by 1992. A battery is built around six launcher vehicles carrying twelve rockets each, with loader and replenishment vehicles and two command post vehicles behind them, and it can put all seventy-two rockets into the air in about forty-four seconds — saturation fire over an area rather than precision against a point. It was used in the Kargil operations of 1999 against Pakistani positions on the heights, and the first regiment was raised in February 2000.
- (b)It is a type of battle tank. — India's battle tanks are the Arjun, developed by the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, and the T-72 and T-90 series built under licence. Pinaka is artillery, not armour.
- (c)It is an advanced submarine. — The submarine programmes carry different names — Arihant for the nuclear-powered ballistic missile boats, Kalvari for the Scorpene-class conventional submarines.
- (d)It is an indigenously developed drone system. — India's indigenous unmanned aircraft come from a separate line of work, the Nishant and Rustom family. A rocket artillery system is not a drone.
Rocket artillery trades accuracy for volume. A gun fires one shell at a time with great precision; a multi-barrel rocket launcher empties a full pod in seconds and blankets a target area, which suits counter-battery work, breaking up troop concentrations and cutting supply lines. The system has been extended steadily: the original Mark I reaches about 37.5 km, the enhanced Mark I about 45 km, the Mark II about 60 km, and guided versions push to roughly 75 to 80 km, with a longer-range guided rocket taking the family past 100 km.
The name is the whole question. Pinaka is the bow of Shiva, and Indian defence naming leans on that register for rockets and missiles — Trishul, Nag, Agni, Prithvi — while ships take INS names, tanks take Arjun and submarines take Arihant and Kalvari. Once a candidate sorts the four options by which service and which naming family they belong to, only one is left standing. Because the system keeps being upgraded, it is worth anchoring the range figure to a version rather than quoting a single number.
- Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launcher developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and produced in India.
- A Pinaka battery has six launchers of twelve rockets each and can fire all seventy-two rockets in about forty-four seconds.
- Mark I reaches about 37.5 km, the enhanced Mark I about 45 km, Mark II about 60 km, and guided versions about 75 to 80 km.
- The system was used during the Kargil conflict in 1999 and the first regiment was raised in February 2000.
- Design work began in the mid-1980s, with the first prototypes completed in 1992.
- Reading a Sanskrit weapon name as automatically a missile; Pinaka is unguided rocket artillery in its original form.
- Quoting one range figure for the whole family, when four versions with different ranges are in service or trials.
- Confusing the launcher with a single rocket — a Pinaka battery is twelve vehicles and two command posts, not one tube.
As a one-line what-is-it item, or inside a match-list pairing indigenous systems with their category — tank, submarine, rocket, radar.
Pinaka, developed in India, is a
- (a) battle tank.
- (b) multi-barrel rocket launcher.
- (c) anti-tank guided missile.
- (d) armoured utility vehicle.
Answer(b) multi-barrel rocket launcher.
The same question in the very next CDS paper, with the options rearranged. UPSC repeats this one often enough that the phrase multi-barrel rocket launcher is worth memorising against the name.
The terms 'Pinaka and Smerch' mentioned in news recently refer to
- (a) Cruise missiles
- (b) Nuclear-powered submarines
- (c) Rocket launcher systems
- (d) Weaponised drones
Answer(c) Rocket launcher systems
The same system paired with the Russian-origin Smerch, which is the other rocket launcher in Indian service — a useful reminder that Pinaka is the indigenous half of that pair.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Pinaka has been developed by which one of the following organisations?
- (a)Indian Space Research Organisation
- (b)Defence Research and Development Organisation
- (c)Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- (d)Bharat Dynamics Limited
Answer(b) Defence Research and Development Organisation — several of its laboratories worked on the launcher, rockets and fire control.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is an indigenously built Indian nuclear-powered submarine?
- (a)INS Kalvari
- (b)INS Arihant
- (c)INS Vikrant
- (d)INS Kesari
Answer(b) INS Arihant — the Kalvari class is conventionally powered, Vikrant is an aircraft carrier and Kesari a landing ship.