Agni-5 Missile
A decade awaited, the Agni-5 MIRV ballistic missile was tested successfully at Rajasthan’s Pokhran on Monday. This success places India among those nations that have the ballistic nuclear potential across the globe. The missile can alter its geopolitical and strategic position and act as a game changer in Southeast India. The technology is currently only possessed by a few nations, like the US, UK, Russia, France, and China.
Dr.V.K. Saraswat, former Director General of DRDO and currently Member of Science and Technology, NITI Aayog, said that the latest success of the landmark ballistic weapons system has taken India’s second-strike capability to the next level.
It is also giving a higher and potentially denser zone and more influence across Asia. Scientist Saraswat was deeply involved in developing Agni 5 MIRV.
What is “Force multiplier”?
Dr. Saraswat also mentioned that for India’s nuclear and missile programs, this weapon is a “force multiplier” and would increase the weapon’s “radius of influence.”
“It can create much better destruction compared to one missile. It will also decrease the number of missiles needed to attack the enemy if the war happens. This is ‘Fourth Multiplier’. In terms of missile technology, this is a major one that can control, guide, an precision, and it also uses smaller warheads to generate a greater effect,” Dr. Saraswat added.
While hailing the Agni-5 missile, he also called it an “evolutionary process” of nuclear technology in which India pushed itself way ahead.
However, while applauding the success of the Agni-5 MIRV missile test, PM Modi wrote on platform X, “Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.”
The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, also praised the AGNI-5 missile’s successes and said that it was an ‘important milestone in India’s march towards greater geo-strategic role and capabilities”.
