Agni-5: India plans 5000 km range Agni-5 missile

May 10, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, May 9: India has already attained the capability of developing missiles, which could hit targets beyond 5000 km range, according to Avinash Chander, programme director of Agni missile system.
Avinash Chander, who is also the director of Advanced Systems Laboratory that developed the Agni components, said his lab would now take up the design of the new missile system. "We have the capability of making 5000 km range missiles, but we have to make the designs first. The designing part will be over in two year's time," he said.
Interacting with a select group of reporters here on Friday after the successful test-fire of Agni-3 missile earlier this week, Avinash Chander said the next programme would be Agni-5. There's no need for Agni-4 as it's just an upgradation of the existing Agni-3. "We are looking forward to developing Agni-5 missiles with multiple warheads.
The present missile system carries only one warhead. The advanced stage of Agni-5 will be capable of carrying three warheads that could hit the given target or the set of different targets with precision," he pointed out.
The Agni-3 missile has filled the vital gaps in India's defence capability while Agni-5 will take it a step further. "We are on par with the European nations and China when it comes to possession of missile system capability. Only the USA is ahead of us," he claimed.
The development of Agni-5 will put India on an advantageous position in the region as it could hit any target within the geopolitical system. Only the USA, Russia, France and China have missiles beyond the 3,000 km range. India has
joined the select club with the successful test-firing of Agni-3, which has a range of about 3,500 km. "The Agni-5 technology will be totally indigenous," Avinash Chander said.
Referring to Agni-3, he said it has a state-of-the-art inertial guidance, highly accurate sensors with high immunity from jamming. The ASL is also working on new
warhead technologies that could be used for Agni-3 and Agni-5. The warheads will be capable of hitting the given targets piercing through the anti-ballistic missile defence system of the enemy. They are capable of fooling the radar system.
There will be decoy warheads which will be fired along with the genuine ones. The idea is to divert the attention of the enemy's defence system. The enemy will lose its anti-ballistic missiles firing at the decoy warheads while the real warheads will hit the targets, destroying the enemy's capability. The warheads will also pass through the atmosphere dodging the enemy's missiles.