The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), on Saturday, announced that the flight-trial of an advanced Agni missile with Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle (MIRV) system was carried out from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha, on Friday.
The missile was flight-tested with multiple payloads, aimed at different targets spatially distributed over a vast geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region.
The MIRV capability enables one missile to carry and release several warheads, each aimed at a separate target. Once the missile completes its primary flight phase and its propulsion stages cut off, the individual warheads can detach and travel along their own designated trajectories.
With this successful trial of the missile, developed by DRDO laboratories with the support of industries across the country, India once again showcased the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system.
Flight data confirmed that all mission objectives were met during the trial.
"The telemetry and tracking was carried out by multiple ground and ship-based stations. These systems tracked the entire missile trajectory from lift-off till the impact of all payloads," the defence ministry said in a statement.
Hailing the achievement, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said this will add an incredible capability to the country's defence preparedness against the growing threat perceptions.
While the defence ministry remained tight-lipped about which variant of the Agni missile was involved in the MIRV testing, news agency PTI quoted authoritative sources as saying that it was an Agni-V missile and the trial was conducted to check the MIRV technology under 'Mission Divyastra' .
Agni-V missile has a range of up to 5,000 km. The Agni 1 to 4 missiles have ranges from 700 km to 3,500 km, and they have already been deployed.
It is to be noted that by enabling a single Agni missile to carry and strike multiple targets with separate warheads, India is not only establishing its ability to respond more efficiently to emerging security threats, but such a system also makes it harder for the adversaries to intercept incoming warheads using missile defence systems.
Singh praised DRDO, the Indian Army, and Industry on the successful flight-test.
The trial was witnessed by senior scientists of DRDO and the Indian Army personnel.
The announcement regarding the Agni MIRV system comes a day after the DRDO revealed that it carried out the maiden flight-trial of Tactical Advanced Range Augmentation (TARA) weapon. TARA, the modular range extension kit, is India’s first indigenous glide weapon system to convert unguided warheads into precision-guided weapons. This kit is designed to enhance the lethality and accuracy of a low-cost weapon to neutralise ground-based targets.
