Agni-5 will have a range of 5000 km, the longest range for Indian missiles so far.

The Agni-4 ballistic missile which was successfully test fired on Tuesday has a range of 3500 km, while Agni-3 has a range of 3000 km.

Disclosing the information on Agni-5 slated test fire on February next year, the Director General of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr VK Saraswat said : “There is no need for developing long-range ballistic missiles beyond 5000 km. Our adversaries, namely Pakistan and China need not worry. Our missile programmes are only to act as deterrent. We do not believe in the first use of nuclear missiles.”

When questioned about Odisha Government’s refusal to allow DRDO’s Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) to test various types of artilleries and ammunitions at the Balasore firing range, Dr Saraswat said : “We will take up this matter with the state government. The state government wants to develop there or four ports in the area. We would suggest that the locations of the ports can be shifted by about two kilometers or so. On our part we are also seeking technological solution so that we can test fire our artilleries and ammunitions without causing any problem.”

He said that the state government has, however, not opposed test firing of long-range nuclear capable ballistic missiles. “The Balasore coast in Odisha is a low tide area and the vast expanse of land is most suitable for test firing,” he said.

Dr Saraswat, who is also the Scientific Advisor to the Indian Defence Minister and Secretary in Defence R&D, described Agni-5 as the future lines of missile technology. The technology of Agni-4 is the building blocks for Agni-5.

Agni-1, Agni-2 and Agni-3 missiles are already inducted in the Services. Agni-4 will undergo another test fire before being inducted.

According to Dr Saraswat all the various versions of Agni missiles have their different roles to play. Agni-2 and Agni-4 can be deployed in the Western Sector. Agni-3 and Agni-4 have complimentary roles, but have different warheads and destruction capabilities. Production of Prithvi series of missiles has been completed.

DRDO is engaged in indigenous development of guns by graduating to new technology. It will take four years for production. DRDO also has a programme for protecting India’s assets in the outer space and believes in use of the outer space for peaceful purposes. However, in future warfare a Unified Control Centre would be absolutely necessary, said Dr Saraswat.

Regarding cyber warfare, he said that DRDO has a strong team which has identified new areas of target.

On the issue of the US Administration exempting few DRDO labs from the Entities List, Dr Saraswat said : “mere exemption from the Entities List will not help much. The departments concerned in the US should be proactively willing to transfer necessary technology to us and give quick clearances. However, as the relationship between US and India is improving we expect this to happen soon.”

Agni-1 used solid propulsion booster and a liquid propulsion upper stage, derived from Prithvi, essentially to prove the re-entry structure, control and guidance. The strap-down inertial navigation system adopts explicit guidance, which has attempted for the first time in the world. It uses all carbon composite structure for protecting payload during its re-entry phase. The first flight conducted in May 1989, established the re-entry technology and precise guidance to reach the specific target. Agni-1 flight trials having proved the long-range technologies, an operational version of Agni with solid-solid propulsion system was test fired in April 1999, which is Agni-2 with mobile capability.

Agni-2 is performance, repeated guidance more than 2000 km. The salient features of performance capability and salvo firing the test firings are mobile launch capability, capability. With the completion of above multi-staging, state-of-the-art control and flight trials, the design and development of guidance, re-entry technology and the Trishul Missile is complete, sophisticated on-board packages including Nag Missile which is a third generation anti-advanced communication. Agni-2 has also tank missile with “top-attack” and “fire and been inducted into Services.

Akash System is a medium range Surface-to-Air Missile with multi-target engagement capability. It uses high-energy solid propellant for the booster and ram-rocket propulsion for the sustainer phase. The propulsion system provides higher level of energy with minimum mass, compared to conventional solid/liquid rocket motor, that has better performance with minimum weight of the missile. It has a dual mode guidance, initially on command mode from a phased array radar and later radar homing guidance with unique software developed for high accuracy. The phased array radar provides capability for multiple target tracking and simultaneous deployment of missiles to attack four targets at the same time, in each battery. Multiple batteries constitute a group centre. The system is highly mobile and has gone through a number of flight trials providing the command guidance.

Brahmos is a supersonic cruise missile and can be used against ship and land targets. It has a range of up to 300 kms. The missile is uniquely configured for installing in ships, submarines & aircraft and on ground vehicles. It has been flight tested twice during June 2001 and April 2002 meeting all mission objectives.

India also has Dhanush series of missiles.

India has Multi-Barrel Rocket System “Pinaka”, an area weapon system to supplement the existing artillery gun at ranges beyond 30 kms, having quick reaction time and high rate of fire has been accepted by the user after extensive trials

Prithvi is a Surface-to-Surface Battlefield Missile. It uses a single state, twin-engine liquid propulsion system and strap-down inertial guidance with real-time software incorporated in the onboard computer to achieve the desired accuracy during impact. Prithvi has higher lethal effect compared to any equivalent class of missiles in the world. Prithvi is a unique missile today having manoeuverable trajectory and high level capability with field interchangeable warheads. Its accuracy has been demonstrated in the development flight trials. Flight trails for Air force has been completed. This system is now being configured for launching from ship, increasing its capability as a sea mobile system.

Trishul is a Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile. It can also be used as an anti-sea skimmer from a ship against low flying attacking missiles. It employs dual thrust propulsion stage using high-energy solid propellant in a maraging steel flow chamber, and is operated on command guidance initially with ka-band gathering and then transferred to the tracking radar. It has necessary electronic counter-counter measures against all known aircraft jammers.

Trishul, with its quickest reaction time, high frequency operation, high manoeuverability, high lethal capability and multi-roles for three services, is state-of-the-art system providing considerable advantage to the Armed forces. This system has gone through development flight trials for army and sea skimmer trials for navy. The final evaluation is in progress before user trials.