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Chennai, February, 8 : With three consecutively
successful flights of Agni-III, 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; the decks
have been cleared for its induction with nuclear warheads, into
the Army; 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 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 it, India should be able to retaliate in
kind. “India should be able to deploy them [Agni-III missiles]
in places where they cannot be detected,” he said.
Both 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 system and guided by an innovative 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 copybook flight with all the events listed in the flight being
executed accurately,” he said.
The missile was tested for its full range and its integrated strategic
command network was fully proved, said Mr. Chander, who is also
Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Hyderabad. The ASL
designs and develops the Agni variants.
According to A. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing
Director, BrahMos Aerospace, the success brought big credit to the
DRDO.
Lt. Gen. B.S. Nagal, chief of the Strategic Forces Command, witnessed
the flight 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.
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