ANCIENT MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM

MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM

Missile defense technology is one of the most advanced technologies in the world today.  Missile Defense System is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield from a small ship to an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) or other ballistic missiles.  Interception might be by anti-ballistic missiles or directed-energy weapons such as lasers.  Interception might occur near the launch point (boost phase), during flight through space (mid-course phase), or during atmospheric descent (terminal phase).  It is a defense technology where a missile is deployed to destroy missiles and their warheads launched by enemy before they can reach their targets.

The United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, India and Israel have all developed such air defense systems.

We all know that during Operation Desert Storm, MIM-104 Patriot missiles were launched to shoot down incoming Iraqi Scud or Al Hussein short-range ballistic missiles launched at Israel and Saudi Arabia, though the claims are controversial.  In 2003, Patriot PAC-3, GEM, and GEM+ missiles both had a very high success rate intercepting Al Samoud-2 and Ababil-100 tactical ballistic missiles in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

India has also developed Akash missile, which is said to be capable of both conventional and nuclear warheads.  A nuclear warhead could potentially give the missile the capability to destroy both aircraft and warheads from ballistic missiles.  These missiles are either guided and/or can be controlled from ground stations to hit the target.

Now, a missile is a weapon that flies and hits a target from the sky above and that to a common man seems as if it is coming from heaven above, like the wrath of God.

The ancient text of Mahabharata also describes different arrays of devastating weapons.  These were divided in two classes, called the Divyastras, meaning the weapons of the God; and Shastras or Astras, meaning weapons of normal man, which can be used by anyone.  One has to acquire these Divyastras from some of the gods like Brahma, Shiva, Indra, etc.  There are different arrays of weapons, like Brahmastra (Lord Brahma), Pashupatastra (Lord Shiva), Indrastra (Lord Indra), Vajra (Lord Indra), etc.  Each of the weapons has some distinct features.  As described in a number of the Puranas, Brahmastra was considered the deadliest weapon (just like a nuclear warhead).  It was said that when the Brahmastra was discharged, there was neither a counterattack nor a defense that could stop it, except by Brahmadanda, a mythical stick (may be a sort of directed-energy weapon, like laser) also created by Brahma. The Brahmastra never missed its mark and had to be used with very specific intent against an individual enemy or army, as the target would face complete annihilation.  According to ancient Sanskrit writings, the Brahmastra is invoked by a key phrase or invocation (like passwords for nuclear weapon activation, may be some speech/voice recognition password) that is bestowed upon the user when given this weapon (as we get the password by buying software programs, eg., Microsoft Word).  Through this invocation (speech/voice recognition password) the user can call upon the weapon and use it via a medium against his adversary.

Brahma had created a weapon even more powerful than the Brahmastra (atom bomb), called the Brahmashira (like hydrogen bomb).  The Brahmashira was never used in war, as it was four times powerful than the Brahmastra, i.e Fourth power square, as the name suggests, since Brahma has Four Heads. Only Arjuna and Ashwathamma possessed the knowledge to summon the Brahmashira.

The weapon was also believed to cause severe environmental damage. The land where the weapon was used became barren and all life in and around that area ceased to exist, as both women and men became infertile. There was also a severe decrease in rainfall with the land developing cracks, like in a drought.

There are various descriptions of weapons created by Hindu deities such as Agneyastra, Brahmastra, Chakra, Garudastra, Kaumodaki, Narayanastra, Pashupatastra, Shiva Dhanush, Sudarshana Chakra, Trishul, Vaishnavastra, Varunastra, and Vayavastra; the personal weapons of the gods, the trishul, chakram and the Brahmastra) are the most powerful of them.

The Narayanastra was the personal missile of lord Vishnu in his Narayana form. This astra ("weapon" in Sanskrit) in turn fires a powerful tirade of millions of deadly missiles simultaneously. The intensity of the shower increases with increase in resistance. The only way of defense towards this missile, is to show total submission before the missiles hit. This in turn will cause this weapon to stop and spare the target.  May be, this refers to some sort of missiles with motion sensors that can detect the movement of the enemy and can blast midair showering shrapnel and may be laying still or without movement can deceive the weapon.

There are numerous instances where Brahmastra was used or its use was threatened.  Particularly, one is noteworthy.

The confrontation of Arjuna and Ashwatthama is also said to have involved the four square more destructive weapon, the Brahmashira. In this version, Ashwatthama invoked and threw Brahmashiras at Arjuna.  In response, Arjuna also invoked the Brahmashira to counter Ashwatthama's, but the collision of two Brahmashiras would have destroyed the universe, so Vyasdev came between the two Brahmashiras, preventing their collision. Arjuna called back his Brahmashira (through a guidance system definitely), but Aswathama did not know how to do this, so he commanded his weapon to attack the unborn grandchild of Arjuna, Parikshit, that is, he controlled the weapon to do minimal damage.

It cannot be mere an arrow for that to happen, because there is no guidance system for an arrow to be guided or the extent of damage could be manipulated.  Average speed of an arrow that is shot from a modern bow is approximately around 206 and 310f/s.  It is virtually impossible to shoot another arrow to destroy the enemy arrow in the midair before it harms or inflict damage.  Whereas, in the Mahabharata and Ramayana we have seen that different sorts of arrows are destroyed in the midair by different arrows, for example Brahmastra with brahmastra or Brahmadanda, Brahmashira with Brahmashira, Indrastra with Indrastra, Agneyastra with Varunastra, etc.

Is it at all possible to hit a flying arrow with another arrow from the opposite direction, head on?  Yet, it is possible to hit a weapon with a weapon if there is some form of tracking and guidance system, as we can see in the case of missiles.

Ref:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_defense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayanastra