Missile Technology of India

Missile Technology of India

Recently, you must have read about the successful test firing of Prithvi-2 missile form Chnadipur, Odisha. Similarly, we keep reading about many other missiles being test fired from different test firing ranges. But do you how many missiles does India have till now? What is the role of missiles in the defense and strategic policy of the nation? And most importantly what are the different classifications of these missiles?

So, first of all let’s have a look at the missile technology of India.

The current missile technology in India laid its roots back in 1962 during India- China war when Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) was made to develop indigenous missiles.

Post 1980s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) was framed by the government when PM Indira Gandhi and her scientific advisors and ministers decided to consolidate the technologies of India. In 1983, APJ Abdul Kalam was made the director of DRDL to lead the IGMDP. It is his role in the programme that gave him the title of “missile man of India”.

The 4 projects conceived under IGMPD by DRDL were

• Short range surface-to-surface missile (code-named Prithvi)

• Short range low-level surface-to-air missile (code-named Trishul)

• Medium range surface-to-air missile (code-named Akash) and

• Third-generation anti-tank missile (code-named Nag).

Agni missile was also conceived under IGMPD.

Under this programme, Interim Test Range was developed near Balasore in Odisha. Prithvi and Agni were test fired in 1988 and 1989 respectively but later in 1989 the Missile Technology Control Regime (then an informal grouping established in 1987 by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) decided to restrict certain technical access to India for its missile programme. Due to this, many projects like Akash, Prithvi, Agni etc. could not be built.

Later, to counter the problem IGMDP team formed a consortium of DRDO laboratories, industries and academic institutions to build these sub-systems, components and materials. And now, we are at a stage where we have indigenously built rockets and missiles although the process took a long time. In 2008 the IGMPD was successfully completed. The currently available missiles are:

1. Prithvi-I (SS-150)(Range: 150 km, Payload: 1000 kg, User: Army). Prithvi series have surface to surface missiles.

2. Prithvi-II (SS-250)(Range: 250 km - 350 km, Payload: 500 kg - 1000 kg, User: Air Force, Army)

3. Prithvi-III (SS-350)(Range: 350 km - 600 km, Payload: 250 kg - 500 kg, User: Army, Air Force, Navy)

4. Agni-I(Range: 700 – 1,200 km, Type: MRBM, User: Army, Air Force). Agni series have surface to surface missiles.

5. Agni-II(Range: 2,000 – 2,500 km, Type: IRBM, User: Army, Air Force)

6. Agni-III(Range: 3,000 – 5,000 km, Type: IRBM, User: Army, Air Force)

7. Agni-IV(Range: 2,500 – 3,700 km, Type: IRBM, User: Army, Air Force)

8. Agni-V(Range: 5,000 – 8,000 km, Type: ICBM, User: Army, Air Force)

9. Agni-VI(Range: 8,000 – 10,000 km, Type: ICBM, User: Army, Air Force)

10. K-15(Range: 750 km, Weight: 10 tonne, Warhead: 1 tonne, length: 10 m). The K group of missiles are a submarine launched ballistic missiles.

11. K-4(Range: 3,500-5,000 km, Weight: 17 tonnes, Warhead: 1 tonne - 2.5 tonnes, length: 10 m)

12. K-5(Range: 6,000 km, Weight: Unspecified, Warhead: 1 tonne)

13. BrahMos(Type: Supersonic, Range: 290 km). It is world’s fastest cruise missile.

14. Shaurya (Type: Hypersonic, Range: 1000-1800 Km,). Short range surface to surface missile.

15. SR-SAM (Type: Hypersonic, Range: 15 Km). Surface to air missile.

16. Pinaka (Range: 40 km,). It is a multi barrel rocket system and can fire 12 rockets at a time.

17. Nag (Range: 4km,). It is an anti tank missile or “fore and forget” missile.

18. Akash (Range: 30 Km). Medium range surface to surface missile.

19. MR-SAM (Range: 70 km, Used: Air force) . It is also known as BARAK-8. It is Indo- Israeli surface to air missile (SAM).

These are those missiles which have been fully developed but there are many others which are in the process of development or testing phase such as

1. BrahMos-2(Type: Hypersonic, Range: 290 km)

2. Long-Range Cruise Missile (LRCM) (Type: Supersonic, Range: 1000 km)

3. Pinaka 2 (Range: 120 km)

4. Nag 2(Range: 7 km)

5. Akash MK2 (Range: 45 -50 KM)

6. Astra missile Mk2(Range: 100-120 km). Astra missile group is a “Beyond Visual Air to Air Missile”. (BVRAAM).

7. Prahaar(Range: 150 KM). it is a surface to surface ballistic missile.

8. Astra (Range: 80 km)

9. HeliNa(Range: 7Km). it is a variant of NAG missile and HeliNa stands for Helicopter launched Nag.

10. LRSAM (Range: 70 Km)

11. Trishul (Range: 8-12 Km). a surface to air missile.