Agni-V test fire: Mission accomplished

Before Thursday, only Russia, US, China, France and Britain could boast of having inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM). However, by successfully launching Agni-V, with a strike range of 5,000km, India on Thursday joined the elite group. Experts called it a huge achievement.

“It does not matter anymore whether it is 5,000km or 10,000km. Distances have fallen apart. The message to the world is that we have perfected technology and we have perfected all stages. It is just a matter of time before we achieve a greater range,” Padma Vibhushan Dr VS Arunachalam, who launched the Agni project in early 1980s, told DNA. “I had the ‘mission accomplished’ kind of feeling when I heard of Agni-V’s successful launch.”

“In 1982-83, when Indira Gandhi signed the cabinet note authorising the programme, she asked me ‘how long’, and then said ‘do good technology’. We have perfected technology 29 years since then,” Arunachalam said over phone from Bangalore where he is with the Centre for Study of Science Technology and Policy.

Former DRDO chief M Natarajan who was thanked by defence minister AK Antony on Thursday for his valuable contribution to the programme said India has achieved a range which is of “interest to India in terms of deterrence capability”. 

“We have capitalised the ability to build them in modules. For Agni-V, we used first and second stages from Agni-III with incremental improvements in systems, so that more focus could be put on stage three. Agni-III had two motors whereas Agni-V has a third motor fitted into the missile’s nose,” said Natarajan. He said the third motor with a ‘peculiar design’ has been fitted into a ‘very small package’ without significantly increasing the length and diameter of the missile. “Therefore I say the skills in technology are ingenious,” he said.

Natarajan said the range of a missile should be of ‘political interest’. “Every country has some objectives. Why would we want to build a missile range that targets friendly countries?” he said, hinting that India may have achieved its objective with Agni-V.

Agni-V is capable of hitting targets in China.

Wing Commander Ajay Lele, an expert on weapons of mass destruction and strategic technologies, sought to cool down arguments surrounding China. “Initial reactions are bound to be there. China has a missile with a range of 12,000km - more than double of what we achieved on Thursday,” he said. But China, he said, had a monopoly in the region which no longer exists. “Now there is strategic stability in the region,” said Lele.