With the growing threat of China on our eastern border and its activities on our western border growing day by day.This has made India uncomfortable. With Pakistan being armed by china for future conflict with India and act like a satellite state of China , it has become imperative for India to look for weapons which can strike Chinese cities. Thus DRDO has decided to test AGNI-V by the end of 2011 most probably in December.
One of the greatest advantage China has is its strategic depth due to its size which is much greater than that of India. At present most of the Northern regions of china are beyond the range of Indian missiles. On the other hand Chinese missiles can hit any Indian territory even when launched from deep within China like the Dong-Feng series of missiles.
Indian Army has already started inducting missiles with the range of 3,500km called AGNI-III, AGNI-I(700km+) and AGNI-II(2,000km +). AGNI-I is a medium, range Ballistic Missile while AGNI-II and AGNI-III are intermediate range ballistic missile. But the policy makers clearly realize that this is not enough we must have the option of nuclear strikes deep within Chinese territory specially targeting their shore based industrial complexes. To achieve that particular goal India is looking to fast-track Agni-V project. It may be remembered that few years back under pressure form China and the west this particular project was shelved by the Indian government.
Agni V unlike its predecessors is a canister launched missile which can be mobilized quickly by road. It will give India the much needed Nuclear strike capability. (It must be noted that Agni-V is still not intercontinental ballistic missile, thus it is called near ICBM). With high road mobility, fast-reaction ability and a strike range over 5,000 km, Agni-V would even bring China's northernmost regions within its nuclear strike envelope if it is ever required.
India's Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) has made its forthcoming Agni-5 missile highly road-mobile, or easily transportable by road, which would bring Harbin, China's northernmost city within striking range if the Agni-5 is moved to northeast India," the People's Daily reported. Harbin is the capital of China's Heilongjiang Province
The paper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, noted that the Agni-5 which has a range of 5,000 km is similar to the Dongfeng-31A showcased during China's National Day Military Parade on October 1 in Beijing. India is going to test-fire the missile in early 2011, the report claimed.
Agni-V would also carry MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) payloads being concurrently developed. A single MIRVed missile can deliver multiple warheads at different targets even if they are separated by long distances.
"We have tested the three (solid-propellant composite rocket motor) stages of Agni-V independently...all ground tests are now over. The integration process is now in progress. We want to test the missile in December, not let it spill over to 2012," DRDO chief V K Saraswat told TOI on Friday.
This came after defence minister A K Antony, addressing the annual DRDO awards ceremony, asked defence scientists to "demonstrate" the 5,000-km missile's capability "at the earliest".
With a "launch mass" of around 50 tonne and a development cost of over Rs 2,500 crore, Agni-V will incorporate advanced technologies involving ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance. It takes its first stage from Agni-III, with a modified second stage and a miniaturized third stage to ensure it can fly to distances beyond 5,000 km.
An ICBM, incidentally, usually denotes a missile capable of hitting targets over 5,500 km away, and has largely been the preserve of the Big-5 countries till now.
The Missile is also called K-V+ /XV. DRDO is working on a Submarine Launched Version of the Agni-V missile, which will provide India with a credible sea based second strike capability. The SLBM version is a miniaturized version of the Agni-V.
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