The Hindu : Front Page : Range of ballistic missiles to be improved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
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Range of ballistic missiles to be improved

Sandeep Dikshit

More tests required for Agni-III: Saraswat

Agni-IV still in design stage
DRDO to launch two interceptor missiles next year

— Photo: V. Sudershan

V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller, DRDO.

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday announced plans to improve the range and efficacy of its long-range ballistic missiles.

While the 6,000-km Agni-IV was at the design stage and work was in progress, more tests were required before commercial production for the 4,000-km Agni-III could be considered, said V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) here on Wednesday.

Speaking to presspersons, he said “Agni-IV is still in the design stage and so we cannot give a date for the trials and several tests remain before we operationalise it.”

The scientist did not disclose the range of Agni-IV but said “it would be that much” when asked whether the missile, with nuclear weapon carrying capability, would be of 6,000-km range.

India says it has begun production of the 700-km Agni-I and the 2,500-km Agni II after development work and tests that lasted over a decade. A test of the longer range Agni-III, earlier this year, ended in failure.

Dr. Saraswat was fielded to interact with the media after the “successful” missile interceptor tests in both exo (above 40 km) and endo-(below 30 km) atmospheric conditions.

He also spoke about India’s indigenous missile defence system plans against the backdrop of recent missile tests by Pakistan.

In April next year, he said the DRDO would launch two missiles to intercept a single incoming target missile in both exo and endo atmosphere.

He had made the same observation to The Hindu in an interview at Wheeler’s Island in Orissa after an interceptor missile, called the Advanced Air Defence (AAD-02), destroyed a target missile over the Bay of Bengal on December 6. Only Russia, the United States and Israel are said to possess this capability.

Earlier on December 2, an interceptor missile (AAD01) shot down a simulated electronic ballistic missile in the same area.

Missile defence system

The DRDO scientists said it would take three to four years before India would be prepared to say that it could put in place a national missile defence system.

“It will then be up to the Government to decide [whether to induct the system],” he added.

DRDO chief and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister M. Natarajan has said the interception was “almost like hitting a bullet with a bullet.”

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