Agni-IV places India on a new generation missile trail

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The Agni III missile is displayed during the Republic Day parade at Rajpath in New Delhi.

In what is considered a landmark event in India’s missile programme, the Agni-IV missile was successfully test-fired from the Wheelers’ Island, off the Orissa coast, on November 15, 2011.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) press release stated that the most advanced long-range missile, launched from a Road Mobile System at 9 am, followed its trajectory “in a textbook fashion”, attaining a height of about 900 km and reaching the pre-designated target in the Bay of Bengal. All the systems functioned perfectly, encountering the re-entry temperatures of more than 3,000ºC. All mission objectives were fully met.
According to the DRDO, this missile is one of its kind. It showcased many new technologies for the first time and is a quantum leap in terms of missile technology. The missile is light in weight and has two stages of solid propulsion and a payload with re-entry heat shield. The composite rocket motor technology, which has been used for the first time, has also given excellent performance. The missile system is equipped with modern and compact avionics with redundancy to provide high level of reliability. The indigenous ring laser gyros-based high-accuracy INS (Rins) and micro navigation system (Mings) complementing each other in redundant mode, have been successfully flown in guidance mode for the first time.
The high-performance onboard computer with distributed avionics architecture, high-speed reliable communication bus and a full digital control system have harnessed and guided the missile to the target. The missile reached the target with a very high level of accuracy. Radars and electro-optical systems along the Orissa coast have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile. Two Indian naval ships located near the target have also witnessed the final event.
Defence minister A.K. Antony congratulated the DRDO team on its achievement.
Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, scientific adviser to the defence minister, secretary, department of defence R&D and director-general, DRDO, who witnessed the launch, congratulated all the scientists and employees of the DRDO and the armed forces upon the successful launch of Agni-IV. Mr Avinash Chander, distinguished scientist, chief controller (missiles & strategic systems), DRDO and programme director, Agni, while addressing the scientists after the launch referred to it as a new era in the modern Long Range Navigation System in India. He said, “This test has paved the way ahead for the success of Agni-V mission, which will be launched shortly.”
Tessy Thomas, project director, Agni-IV, who with her team prepared and integrated the missile system and launched the missile, jubilantly said that the DRDO has produced and proven many new state-of-the-art technologies in the Agni system. She highlighted the role of the composite rocket motors, highly accurate ring laser gyro-based inertial navigation system, micro navigation system, digital controller system and very powerful onboard computer system.
Agni-IV, capable of carrying strategic warheads will be produced in huge numbers and delivered to the armed forces as early as possible. The missile is expected to provide good deterrence against external aggression. The use of rockets and missiles in India dates back to the 18th century, i.e., during the period of ruler Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. They used rocket artillery brigades against infantry formations for mass attacks. Men were trained to launch rockets from a launch angle which was calculated from the diameter of the cylinder and the distance of the target. The launchers had the capability to launch 5-10 rockets in salvo firing mode. Tipu Sultan had 27 brigades and each brigade had a company of rocket specialists.
With such a huge force, he defended the Mysore kingdom against the British until his death in Srirangapatnam in 1799. Even Marathas used rockets at the Battle of Panipat in 1761. With the death of Tipu Sultan, Indian rocketry also met its demise, only to be revived in the 1970s by Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, among others. Two of the rockets, captured by the British at Srirangapatnam, are displayed in the Royal Artillery Museum in London.
Defence Science Organisation, formed in 1956 for initiating studies and development of work on futuristic weapon systems, was headed by Dr B.N. Singh who formed the special weapon development team (SWDT) for study and development of guided missiles at Metcalfe House, Delhi. He worked on the first generation of anti-tank missile (ATM) for gaining developmental experience. SWDT later became the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) at old Ahmed Manzil, Hyderabad in June 1962 under Grp. Capt. V. Ganesan as its director.
A project formulated at DRDL in 1964 was supported by the Army after the 1965 Indo-Pak war and was later converted to a “staff project”, which tested an indigenously developed anti-tank missile in 1970. It was considered as a major achievement by the DRDL, which later moved to the Defence Research Complex at Kanchanbagh, on the periphery of Hyderabad’s Old City. Later, some scientists in collaboration with the Army, Navy and the Air Force officers developed the Devil missile.
All the preliminary understanding and development of electronics sub-systems of the Devil missile, including its airframe and aerodynamics were carried out at Ahmed Manzil lab. Leading scientists like Burman, J.C. Bhattacharya, Admiral Mohan and Surya Kantha Rao gave thrust to electronics, navigation, guidance & control and telemetry & instrumentation areas. Dr Ranga Rao, Dr Rama Rao, Dr Bala Krishnan, Krishnan and Dr Achyuthan gave priority to airframe, structures, aerodynamic and system-related areas.
This was further strengthened by the techno-managerial leadership of Lt. Gen.(Retd) Dr V.J. Sundaram, Lt. Gen. R. Swaminathan and Squadron Leader Shah in the area of airframe controls and integration.
Rocket Test House (RTH, presently near Kanchanbagh) was identified for carrying out propulsion-related design and tests. The liquid and solid propulsion areas were continuing with vibrant leadership of Dr Gopal Swamy and Wg. Cdr. Sen.
Re-entry technology and ballistic missile programmes were spearheaded by R.N. Agarwal. The state-of-the-gyro test facility was initiated by P. Banerjee within the campus. However, the whole facility of Ahmed Manzil was shifted near Kanchanbagh in 1975. Full-scale missile laboratory (DRDL) was built from then onwards.
The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) under India’s defence ministry, began in early 1980s for the development of a comprehensive range of missiles, including the intermediate range Agni missile (surface-to-surface), and short-range missiles such as the Prithvi ballistic missile (surface-to-surface), Sagarika, the naval version of the Prithvi, Akash missile (surface-to-air), Astra missile (air-to-air), Trishul missile (surface-to-air), Nag missile (anti-tank) and also an inter-continental-ballistic-missile (codenamed Surya missile) with a range of 8,000-12,000 km. Managed by the DRDO in partnership with other Indian government labs and research centres, one of the most prominent chief engineers on the project, Dr Abdul Kalam went on to become the President of India.
The last major missile developed under the programme was Agni-III intermediate-range ballistic missile which was successfully tested on July 9, 2007. After the third test of Agni-3 on May 7, 2008, the DRDO announced the closure of the IGMDP since most of the missiles in the programme have been developed and inducted into Indian armed forces. These were the Akash, Nag, Prithvi, Trishul and Agni (as re-entry technology demonstrator).
According to a statement to the media by Dr S. Prahlada, former director DRDL and CC, R&D (services interaction and aeronautics) and presently vice-chancellor Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, new missile and weapon systems will be developed in new five-year programmes and will include both Indian private industries as well as foreign partners to reduce costs. Independently continuing further development of Nag missile, the DRDO is also developing a laser-based weapon system as part of its ballistic missile defence programme to intercept and destroy missiles soon after they are launched towards the Indian territory.
In 1998, the government of India signed an agreement with Russia to design, develop, manufacture and market BrahMos (Brahmaputra-Moscow rivers), a supersonic cruise missile system that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. The mission was successfully accomplished by 2006.
At speeds of Mach 2.5 to 2.8, it is the world’s fastest cruise missile, about three-and-a-half times faster than the American subsonic Harpoon cruise missile. BrahMos is reportedly attempting a hypersonic Mach 8 version of the missile, BrahMos II, the first ever hypersonic cruise missile, expected to be ready by 2012-13.
According to the Internet, three BrahMos missile regiments raised so far have been deployed in the western sector to counter threat from Pakistan and in the second phase of military expansion along the China front, the government has reportedly given the go-ahead for deployment of BrahMos cruise missiles in Arunachal Pradesh. The fourth regiment cruise missiles, with a 290-km range, will improve India’s military reach into the Tibet Autonomous Region and counter China’s elaborate missile deployment along the Sino-Indian border.
On December 6, 2011, the first fully-modified aircraft for the indigenously developed Indian Airborne Warning and Control System (AEW&C) took to the skies on its maiden flight at the Embraer Complex, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. The Emb 145 AEW&C platform developed for India has about 1,000 mission system components provided by the Centre for Airborne Systems of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (Cabs, DRDO), Bengaluru. The support also includes the critical item AESA (Active Electronic Scanning Antenna) Radar Antenna, which have been certified by the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil, International FAR Certification Agency. The agency is responsible for regulating safety and security matters related to civil aircraft and its components, personnel licensing, operations and aerodromes. While this aircraft will undergo the full certification process over the next two years, the Indian Air Force will receive two aircraft by the middle of 2012 and by 2013 mission systems developed by various DRDO labs, currently undergoing ground integration and evaluation at CABS, are expected to be integrated.

Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi