Agni-5 done, bumble bee next: Sundaram

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Gone are the days when missiles like Prithvi, the first missile under the Integrated Guided Missile Programme, was test-fired 15 times before induction. Agni-5 will have no more than five tests, according to Lt. General v.j Sundaram (retd), widely considered as one of the pioneers of MAVs in the country. “We had to test-fire Prithvi over and over again, because you need to be absolutely sure. Of course, there are things we didn’t know then that we know now, so we might get away with fewer runs before Agni-5 is inducted”, he said. The General also added, “If you get consistent results with five runs, then that’s all you need. But there’s no guarantee. We have launched 60 Prithvi missiles and something could still go wrong”.

The Agni-5 is being touted as the game-changer for India’s guided missile programme. But the officer chose to say, “These are all such political terms, I don’t want to get into it. From a purely technical point of view, though, the Agni-5 is a fine piece of engineering”. Lt. General Sundaram, who delivered a talk at the Indian Institute of Science on Saturday, is presently adviser (Micro and Nano Systems) at the National Design and Research Forum, The Institution of Engineers, Bengaluru. He was also Director, DRDL, Hyderabad, and Project Director - Prithvi Missile. Currently, he is focussed on Micro Air Vehicles, Micro-Nano-Bio Systems and the coalescence of biology and engineering. “We are looking at building a bumble bee”, he said. The bumblebee sensor will have rhodopsin coated wings (to enable vision in low light) and compound eyes and quality control sensors.