Announcing its arrival to the exclusive club of powerful countries with comprehensive nuclear defence and deterrence arsenal, India on Sunday successfully test-fired the indigenously-produced nuclear-capable Agni-V missile. Only the UN Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United States and Britain – are in possession of the state-of-the-art technology.
India’s longest-range ballistic missile has a strike range of more than 5,000 km and was fired from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast at about 8.50 am on Sunday. The missile is capable of hitting targets deep inside China, Pakistan and can even reach parts of Europe and Africa. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson RK Gupta confirmed that the ‘the test was successful.’
Conducted in the presence of defence scientists and experts, Sunday’s launch was the second developmental trial of the long-range missile. The first test was conducted on 19 April 2012 and was deemed ‘a total success.’ The Agni-V missile is about 17 metres in length and 2 metres in width with launch weight of around 50 tonnes.
The surface-to-surface missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead of more than 1,000 kilograms (one tonne), witnessed an ‘auto launch’ and detailed results of the trial will be known after thorough analyses of all data retrieved from different radars and network systems.
Unlike other missiles of the indigenously built Agni series, Agni-V boasts of some of the most advanced technologies incorporated within it, especially in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine. Alongside the missile test launch, several new technologies developed indigenously were successfully tested in the first Agni-V trial.
A defence ministry official said that the redundant navigation systems, the ‘very high accuracy’ Ring Laser Gyro-based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and the most modern and accurate Micro Navigation System (MINS) had ensured that the missile reaches the target point within few metres of precision. The high-speed onboard computer and fault tolerant software along with robust and reliable bus guided the missile flawlessly, said a defence official.
In the Agni series, India, at present, has Agni-I with 700-km range, Agni-II with 2,000-km range, Agni-III and Agni-IV with 2,500 km to more than 3,500-km range. After some more trials, Agni-V will be inducted into the services, sources said.