CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 105 of 120

Correct — B, multi-barrel rocket launcher. Pinaka is a multiple launch rocket system built for the Indian Army by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, with the Armament Research and Development Establishment as the system coordinator. A single launcher vehicle carries twelve rockets and can put all twelve into the air in about forty-four seconds, which is what a rocket artillery system is for — saturating an area target in one burst rather than engaging a point target with a single round. It went into action before it was formally in service, firing in June 1999 during the Kargil conflict, and the first Pinaka regiment was raised in February 2000. The system has been improved steadily since: the original Mark I reaches about 37.5 kilometres, an enhanced Mark I about 45, the Mark II about 60, and the guided version between 75 and 80. The name is taken from the bow of Shiva.

• (a)battle tank. — India's indigenous main battle tank programme is Arjun, developed by the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment. Pinaka is towed and vehicle-mounted artillery, not an armoured fighting vehicle.
• (c)anti-tank guided missile. — Anti-tank guided missiles are precision weapons fired at a single armoured target, and India's indigenous ones belong to the Nag family. Rocket artillery is unguided or lightly guided and is fired in salvoes at an area.
• (d)armoured utility vehicle. — A carrier for troops or equipment. Pinaka's launcher is mounted on a heavy vehicle, but the system being named is the rocket launcher itself, not the vehicle under it.

Rocket artillery does a different job from gun artillery. A howitzer fires one shell at a time with high accuracy and can sustain fire for hours; a multi-barrel rocket launcher empties a full pod in under a minute, laying a very large weight of explosive across a wide area, then moves before counter-battery fire arrives. Armies field both. India operates Pinaka alongside the Russian-origin Smerch and Grad systems.

Defence questions on this paper reward recognising a category rather than memorising specifications. Pinaka, Smerch and Grad are rocket launchers; Arjun and T-90 are tanks; Nag, Helina and Amogha are anti-tank missiles; Akash and Barak are surface-to-air. Get the family right and the option is usually obvious. Since this paper was written the Pinaka story has moved on in exactly the direction the ranges suggest — longer-ranged and guided variants have been tested and inducted, and the system has been offered for export, so treat the range figures above as the state of a programme that is still developing rather than as fixed numbers.

• Pinaka is a multiple launch rocket system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, with the Armament Research and Development Establishment as system coordinator.
• A launcher carries twelve rockets and can fire the full load in about forty-four seconds.
• It was first used operationally in June 1999 during the Kargil conflict, and the first Pinaka regiment was raised in February 2000.
• Reported ranges by variant are about 37.5 km for the Mark I, about 45 km for the enhanced Mark I, about 60 km for the Mark II, and 75 to 80 km for the guided version.
• The system is named after the bow of Shiva.

• Treating an unguided rocket salvo as a missile; a missile is guided to its target, a rocket artillery round largely is not.
• Mixing up Pinaka with Prithvi — one is rocket artillery, the other a short-range ballistic missile.
• Quoting one range figure for the whole system; the variants differ substantially.

As a one-line identification of a named Indian system, or as a match between systems and their categories.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Pinaka and Smerch, both in service with the Indian Army, belong to which category of weapon system?

  • (a)Surface-to-air missiles
  • (b)Multi-barrel rocket launchers
  • (c)Main battle tanks
  • (d)Self-propelled howitzers

  Answer(b) Multi-barrel rocket launchers — Pinaka is the indigenous system and Smerch the Russian-origin one; both fire salvoes of rockets at area targets.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Pinaka was first used in action during which conflict?

  • (a)The 1971 war
  • (b)Operation Meghdoot on the Siachen glacier
  • (c)The Kargil conflict of 1999
  • (d)The Doklam standoff of 2017

  Answer(c) The Kargil conflict of 1999 — it was deployed before formal induction, and the first Pinaka regiment was raised in February 2000.