AGNI-5

           

Agni-V is a solid fueled ICBM under development by DRDO of India. It will greatly expand India's reach to strike targets well beyond 5,500 km away. Missile trial is likely to be held from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast on 18th April, 2012. 

                                         

 INTRODUCTION                                                                    

 Dr M Natrajan, a senior defense scientist of India, disclosed in 2007 that DRDO is working on an upgraded version of the Agni-3 known as the Agni-V (Earlier known as Agni-III* and Agni-IV) and that it will be ready in 4 years. The missile will have a range of about 6,000 km.

The armed forces are already inducting the two-stage 3,500-km Agni-III after completion of its developmental and pre-induction trials last year, having earlier operationalised the Agni-I (700-km) and Agni-II (over 2,000-km) missiles.

It will be quite easy to store and swiftly transport the missile by road since it's a canister-launch missile system, unlike the earlier Agni missiles.

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.

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 accelerometer 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 of 5,000 km. With a canister-launch system to impart higher road mobility, the missile will give the armed forces much greater operational flexibility than the earlier-generation of Agni missiles. "The accuracy levels of Agni-V and the 3,500-km Agni-IV (first tested in November 2011), with their better guidance and navigation systems, are far higher than Agni-I (700-km), Agni-II (2,000-km) and Agni-III (3,000-km), said the source.

The nuclear-capable Agni-V will be operational by 2014-2015 after four to five repeatable tests by the DRDO.

Indian authorities believe that the solid-fuelled Agni-V is "more than adequate" to meet current threat perceptions and security concerns. The missile will bring the whole of Asia, including the northernmost parts of China, 70% of Europe and other regions under its strike envelope.                        

                        

PROPULSION

The Agni-V is a three stage solid fueled missile with composite motor casing in the third stage. In many aspects, the Agni-5 carries forward the Agni-3 pedigree. With composites used extensively to reduce weight, and a third stage added on (the Agni-3 was a two-stage missile), the Agni-5 can fly 1,500 km further than the 3,500 km range Agni-III. Two stages of this missile will be made of composite material.Advanced technologies like ring laser gyroscope and accelerometer will be used in the new missile. "You can reduce the payload and (further) increase the range of Agni-V" Saraswat told the Reuters in Feb 2010.

MOBILITY

"The Agni-5 is specially tailored for road-mobility," explains Avinash Chander, Director, ASL. "With the canister having been successfully developed, all India's future land-based strategic missiles will be canisterised as well". The missile will utilize a canister and will be launched from it. Made of maraging steel, a canister must provide a hermitically sealed atmosphere that preserves the missile for years. During firing, the canister must absorb enormous stresses when a thrust of 300 to 400 tonnes is generated to eject the 50-tonne missile.

                                     AGNI-5 MISSILE RANGE 

                                           

                                                

PREPARATION FOR TESTING

The defence minister A K Antony, addressing the annual DRDO awards ceremony, asked defense scientists to "demonstrate" the 6,000-km missile's capability "at the earliest".

DRDO chief V K Saraswat told Times of India in mid-2011 that DRDO has tested the three solid-propellant composite rocket motor stages of Agni-V independently and all ground tests are now over.

In September 2011, DRDO Chief V.K. Saraswat confirmed that the first test flight will be conducted in 2012. India has begun final preparations for the first test of its most-ambitious strategic missile, the 5,000-km Agni-V, which will prove to be both a technical as well as logistical challenge. It will be tested from Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast towards end-March to early-April, top defence sources said.

According to a source, "DRDO is almost ready for the test. There are no technical glitches or problems. It's more of a scheduling and logistical issue now since the missile will travel halfway across the Indian Ocean. Countries like Indonesia and Australia as well as international air and maritime traffic in the test zone will have to be alerted a week or 10 days before the test. Moreover, our warships, with DRDO scientists, tracking and monitoring systems, will have to be positioned midway and near the impact point in southern Indian Ocean," 

Now The missile will be test fired between April 18 and 24 , in Wheeler island , Odisha. 

A Google earth picture of launch facilities in Wheeler Island (2012)