Agni 4 precursor to Agni 5: India strengthens its defence capabilities: Agni 4 can strike 3500 km away targets; Agni 5 can hit Europe

Syed Akbar
Hyderabad. Nov 15: India once again proved its military capabilities
by successfully test firing the new range of missiles in the Agni
series – Agni 4 – that will bridge the present gap between the Agni 2
and Agni 3 missiles. The Agni - 4, originally named Agni 2 prime, was
redesigned with several new technologies indigenously developed to
give a boost to the country’s ambitious defence programme. The next in
line is Agni 5 with a range larger than 5000 km and capable of hitting
targets as far away as China and bringing Europe within the target
range. The Agni 5 is likely to be launched within a few months.
Agni 4 with a precision killer technology has a range of 3000 plus km.
The Missile has capability to carry strategic warheads and has
provided a fantastic deterrence to the country. DRDO plans to produce
a large number of such missiles for the Armed forces.
The new range missile was launched from a Road Mobile System on
Tuesday morning from Wheelers’ Island off the coast of Odisha. “The
missile had a textbook trajectory and reached a height of about 900
kms and reached the pre-designated target in the international waters
of Bay of Bengal. All mission objectives were fully met. All the
systems functioned perfectly till the end encountering the re-entry
temperatures of more than 3000 degrees Celsius,” according to an
official statement released here.
Agni 4 is one of its kinds with a world-class technology. This missile
had proved many new technologies for the first time, giving a quantum
leap for the country in defence technology. The missile is lighter in
weight and has two stages of solid propulsion and a payload with
re-entry heat shield.
The Composite Rocket Motor, which has been used for the first time,
has 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 and high speed reliable communication bus and a full
Digital Control System have controlled and                   guided
the Missile to the target.  The Missile has reached the target with
very high level of accuracy,” the statement pointed out.
All the radars and electro-optical systems along the coast of Odisha
have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the vehicle.  Two
Indian Naval ships located near the target have witnessed the final
event.
Dr VK Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister,
congratulated all the scientists and employees of DRDO and the Armed
forces for the successful launch. Dr Avinash Chander, chief controller
(missiles & strategic systems), DRDO, and Programme Director, Agni
called it as a new era in the modern long-range navigation system of
India.  He said this has paved the way ahead for the success of Agni 5
mission, which will be launched shortly.
Dr Tessy Thomas, Project Director AGNI 4, and team prepared and
integrated the Missile System and launched the missile successfully.
“The DRDO has produced and proven many new state of the art
technologies in the Missile System like composite rocket motors, very
high accuracy ring laser gyro based inertial navigation system, micro
navigation system, digital controller system and very powerful onboard
computer system,” she added.
Commander in Chief of Strategic Force Command Air Marshal KJ Mathews
has witnessed the launch.  Dr SK Ray, Director RCI, Dr P Venugopalan,
Director DRDL, Dr VG Sekaran Director ASL, Dr SP Dash, director ITR,
were present during the launch.