New Delhi: After the mischief played by the weather gods a day earlier, the god of fire or “Agni’’ came into his own on Thursday morning to hurl a potent fireball more than halfway across the expanse of the Indian Ocean at over 20 times the speed of sound.
India heralded a new era in its “credible” strategic deterrence capability by testing its most ambitious nuclear missile — the over 5,000-km range Agni-V — that brings all of China and much more within its strike envelope.
With the launch of the 50-tonne missile from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast at 8.07 am, and its 20-minute flight to an “impact point towards western Australia’’, India also yanked open the door to the super-exclusive ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) club that counts only the US, Russia, China, France and the UK as its members.
India can, however, sit at this high table only when the 17.5-metre tall Agni-V, which just about meets the 5,500-km ICBM benchmark, becomes fully operational after “four to five repeatable tests’’ and usertrials. It will be around 2015 that the three-stage, solidfuelled missile will be ready for deployment by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command. Agni-V to cover whole of Asia, 70% of Europe While Agni-I, II Are Aimed At Pakistan, The Longer Range Agni-III, IV And V Have Been Designed With China In Mind
New Delhi: That didn’t dampen the celebrations though. “It’s a game-changer… a super hit. India is a major missile power now. I don’t think it will take more than two years for Agni-V to be ready for induction,’’ an elated DRDO chief V K Saraswat told TOI soon after the test.
Chief controller (missiles and strategic systems) Avinash Chander said, “We have met all the mission objectives…. All the three stages of propulsion, with indigenously developed composite rocket motors, worked perfectly.’’
The maiden test of Agni-V, designed to carry a 1.5-tonne nuclear warhead, expectedly generated waves around the globe. The missile, after all can deliver multiple warheads and cover the whole of Asia, 70% of Europe, eastern Africa and other regions, leaving only continental America beyond its deadly reach.
Even as PM Manmohan Singh, defence minister A K Antony congratulated the scientists for “doing the country proud’’, the US took note of India’s “solid non-proliferation record’’.
China, however, made its displeasure clear despite its own huge nuclear and missile arsenals that completely dwarf the Indian capacity. Beijing, for instance, has well over four times the nuclear warheads that New Delhi possesses.
Moreover, the People’s Liberation Army has missiles such as the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A that can hit any Indian city, and even unnerves the US. It also has nuclear missile bases in Qinghai province, which house the DF-21 missiles that unmistakably target India.
India, with a declared “no firstuse’’ nuclear doctrine, could have gone in for a much higher range ICBM, say top officials. But Agni-V, with its “very short reaction time as well as very high mobility for requisite operational flexibility’’, takes care of India’s “current threat perceptions and primary area of concern’’.
The test itself was a huge technological and logistical challenge. After lifting off from the mobile launcher at the test range, the missile being propelled by the first stage that burnt out and separated in 90 seconds tore into the sky.
After heading into space during its parabolic trajectory, reaching an altitude of 600 km, Agni-V then re-entered the atmosphere powered by the third stage. The missile reached hypersonic velocities of around 7,000 metres per second in the terminal stage before splashing down in the southern Indian Ocean, all along being monitored by shore and warshipbased tracking systems.
“All three stages went off extremely well. The re-entry parameters were superb… all terminal events related to detonation of the warhead (it was a dummy payload for the test) happened in textbook style. As missile scientists, we could not have expected anything better,’’ Saraswat told TOI.
The armed forces have already inducted Agni-I (700-km) and Agni-II (2,500-km), which are both basically meant to account for a threat from Pakistan. The 3,000-km Agni-III (under induction), 3,500-km Agni-IV (tested for the first time last Nov) and Agni-V have been designed with China in their scheme of things.
Unlike the earlier largely railmobile missiles, Agni-V can be easily stored in hermitically sealed canisters and swiftly transported atop launcher trucks by road. This will give the armed forces the required operational flexibility to pick and choose from where to launch the missiles.
Agni-V has a “highly accurate’’ inertial navigation system and will get an even more potent punch with MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads. An MIRV payload carries several nuclear warheads on a single missile that can be programmed to hit different targets. A flurry of MIRV missiles can hence completely overwhelm an adversary’s ballistic missile defences. DRDO has also worked to reduce the radar and other “signatures’’ of missiles such as Agni-IV and Agni-V to make them “much more immune to counter-measures’’.
India heralded a new era in its “credible” strategic deterrence capability by testing its most ambitious nuclear missile — the over 5,000-km range Agni-V — that brings all of China and much more within its strike envelope.
With the launch of the 50-tonne missile from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast at 8.07 am, and its 20-minute flight to an “impact point towards western Australia’’, India also yanked open the door to the super-exclusive ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) club that counts only the US, Russia, China, France and the UK as its members.
India can, however, sit at this high table only when the 17.5-metre tall Agni-V, which just about meets the 5,500-km ICBM benchmark, becomes fully operational after “four to five repeatable tests’’ and usertrials. It will be around 2015 that the three-stage, solidfuelled missile will be ready for deployment by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command. Agni-V to cover whole of Asia, 70% of Europe While Agni-I, II Are Aimed At Pakistan, The Longer Range Agni-III, IV And V Have Been Designed With China In Mind
New Delhi: That didn’t dampen the celebrations though. “It’s a game-changer… a super hit. India is a major missile power now. I don’t think it will take more than two years for Agni-V to be ready for induction,’’ an elated DRDO chief V K Saraswat told TOI soon after the test.
Chief controller (missiles and strategic systems) Avinash Chander said, “We have met all the mission objectives…. All the three stages of propulsion, with indigenously developed composite rocket motors, worked perfectly.’’
The maiden test of Agni-V, designed to carry a 1.5-tonne nuclear warhead, expectedly generated waves around the globe. The missile, after all can deliver multiple warheads and cover the whole of Asia, 70% of Europe, eastern Africa and other regions, leaving only continental America beyond its deadly reach.
Even as PM Manmohan Singh, defence minister A K Antony congratulated the scientists for “doing the country proud’’, the US took note of India’s “solid non-proliferation record’’.
China, however, made its displeasure clear despite its own huge nuclear and missile arsenals that completely dwarf the Indian capacity. Beijing, for instance, has well over four times the nuclear warheads that New Delhi possesses.
Moreover, the People’s Liberation Army has missiles such as the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A that can hit any Indian city, and even unnerves the US. It also has nuclear missile bases in Qinghai province, which house the DF-21 missiles that unmistakably target India.
India, with a declared “no firstuse’’ nuclear doctrine, could have gone in for a much higher range ICBM, say top officials. But Agni-V, with its “very short reaction time as well as very high mobility for requisite operational flexibility’’, takes care of India’s “current threat perceptions and primary area of concern’’.
The test itself was a huge technological and logistical challenge. After lifting off from the mobile launcher at the test range, the missile being propelled by the first stage that burnt out and separated in 90 seconds tore into the sky.
After heading into space during its parabolic trajectory, reaching an altitude of 600 km, Agni-V then re-entered the atmosphere powered by the third stage. The missile reached hypersonic velocities of around 7,000 metres per second in the terminal stage before splashing down in the southern Indian Ocean, all along being monitored by shore and warshipbased tracking systems.
“All three stages went off extremely well. The re-entry parameters were superb… all terminal events related to detonation of the warhead (it was a dummy payload for the test) happened in textbook style. As missile scientists, we could not have expected anything better,’’ Saraswat told TOI.
The armed forces have already inducted Agni-I (700-km) and Agni-II (2,500-km), which are both basically meant to account for a threat from Pakistan. The 3,000-km Agni-III (under induction), 3,500-km Agni-IV (tested for the first time last Nov) and Agni-V have been designed with China in their scheme of things.
Unlike the earlier largely railmobile missiles, Agni-V can be easily stored in hermitically sealed canisters and swiftly transported atop launcher trucks by road. This will give the armed forces the required operational flexibility to pick and choose from where to launch the missiles.
Agni-V has a “highly accurate’’ inertial navigation system and will get an even more potent punch with MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads. An MIRV payload carries several nuclear warheads on a single missile that can be programmed to hit different targets. A flurry of MIRV missiles can hence completely overwhelm an adversary’s ballistic missile defences. DRDO has also worked to reduce the radar and other “signatures’’ of missiles such as Agni-IV and Agni-V to make them “much more immune to counter-measures’’.
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