Indian Missile News And Discussion

[Arun_S]

[url="http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article102608.ece?css=print"]DRDO raises the bar, sets its sights on 5,000-km Agni-V[/url]

T. S. SubramanianY. Mallikarjun The Hindu Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, V.K. Saraswat. File photo: K. Gajendran With three consecutively successful flights of Agni-III, the missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have raised the bar: they will now busy themselves with realising Agni-V which will have a range of 5,000 km.



The success of the Agni-III flight on Sunday, according to them, sent out several signals: it has become a proven missile; [color="#9932cc"]the decks have been cleared for its induction with nuclear warheads, into the Army[/color]; it established the maturity of India’s nuclear deterrence programme and its second-strike capability.



It was the Army which conducted the successful flight. With this, the induction process of the missile has commenced. “This launch is a stepping stone to the DRDO realising its next intermediate range ballistic missile, Agni-V,” V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, said.



Dr. Saraswat, who is also Director-General of the DRDO, said the flight proved that the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which aimed at denying missile technologies to India, “has not affected our programme.”



“The development of the Agni-III took place independent of the MTCR. About 80 to 85 per cent of the components were indigenous. The indigenisation has gone to such a level where we are independent of any embargo,” Dr. Saraswat said.



W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller (Life Sciences and Human Resources), DRDO, described the flight as “a milestone in strengthening our defence and developing our second-strike capability.”



Dr. Selvamurthy said that since India was wedded to the doctrine of “no-first-use” of its nuclear weapons, it needed to have a robust second-strike capability. If any country were to use nuclear weapons against India, the country should be able to retaliate in kind. “India should be able to deploy them [Agni-III missiles] in places where they cannot be detected,” [color="#0000ff"]{Arun_S: Thick forest cover of tropical island in mainland as well in Andman island make is extremely difficult to figure out where the mobile launcher is. The abelity to hit ou irrespective of where in Indian land it is deplyed is teh main value that AGni-III brings to table compared to all other Indian missiles. }[/color] he said.



Both the stages of Agni-III are powered by solid propellants. It is 17 metres long, has a diameter of two metres and a launch weight of 50 tonnes. It can carry payloads weighing 1.5 tonnes.



The missile was equipped with a sophisticated computer system, navigated with an advanced navigation system and guided with an innovated guidance scheme. Several radars and electro-optical tracking systems, along the coast of Orissa, monitored its path and evaluated its parameters in real-time. Two ships tracked and witnessed the missile reaching its target.



Avinash Chander, Mission Director, called the flight “a thrilling experience,” with all the mission objectives met. “It was a copy-book flight with [color="#800080"]all the events listed in the flight being executed accurately[/color],” he said.



The missile was tested for its full range and [color="#9932cc"]its integrated strategic command network was fully proved,[/color] said Mr. Chander, who is also Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Hyderabad. The ASL designs and develops the Agni variants. [color="#0000ff"]{Arun_S: The claim of tested to full range is dubious, and anyone who has military common sense knows that Agni-III range with 1.5 tonne payload is not just 3,500 Km. With 2,500 - 3,000 Kg payload yes that max range is reasonable}[/color]



According to A. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, the success brought big credit to the DRDO.



[color="#800080"]Lt. Gen. B.S. Nagal, chief of Strategic Forces Command, witnessed the flight[/color] from the Wheeler Island.



V.G. Sekaran, Agni-III Project Director, coordinated the entire integration and launch activities.



While the first flight of Agni-III on July 9, 2006 failed, its second and third flights on April 12, 2007 and May 7, 2008 were successful.

[center]Press Information Bureau

Government of India



[/center] Sunday, February 07, 2010 [color="#ffffff"]Ministry of Defence[/color] [color="#ffffff"] [/color]

[url="http://www.pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page1.asp?relid=57681"]FOURTH TEST FLIGHT OF LONG RANGE MISSILE AGNI-3 SUCCESSFUL[/url] 16:31 IST [size="2"] [/size] The fourth flight of the Indian long range missile AGNI-3 with a range capability of 3500 km was tested successfully by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at 10:50 this morning from the Wheeler Island, in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Odisha. The AGNI-3 Missile tested for the full range, hit the target with pin-point accuracy and met all the mission objectives. Two down range ships located near the target tracked and witnessed the Missile reaching the target accurately.



The marker pen like AGNI-3 Missile is 17 meters long and 2 metres in diameter. The Missile is a two stage solid propellant system with a pay load capability of 1.5 tons. During the course of flight the Missile reached a peak height of 350 kms and re-entered into the atmosphere successfully tolerating the skin temperatures of nearly 3000 degree Celsius.



The missile is equipped with a state of the art computer system, navigated with a most advanced Navigation system and guided with an innovative guidance scheme. The Navigation system used for guidance is first of its kind. Number of Radars and electro optical tracking systems along the coast of Odisha have monitored the path of the Missile and evaluated all the parameters in realtime.



The launch is part of the pre-induction trial. Indian Army (the user) has carried out the total launch operations guided by the DRDO scientists. Now the Missile system will be fully inducted into the armed forces.



[color="#9932cc"]Mission Director Sri Avinash Chander and Project Director Dr V.G. Sekaran have guided and controlled the complete Missile integration and launch activities.[/color] Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and Director General, DRDO Dr V.K. Saraswat have over seen the total launch operations.



Dr V.K. Saraswat and Sri Avinash Chander congratulated all the Scientists and employees of DRDO and the industry partners.



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Sitanshu Kar