NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday that India has successfully completed the inaugural test flight of indigenously designed missile Agni 5 equipped to carry several warheads.
PM Modi revealed in a message on X that the missile is outfitted with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs).
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, PM Modi said on ‘X’.
This system features domestically developed avionics systems and high-precision sensor packages, guaranteeing that the re-entry vehicles hit their intended targets with the requisite accuracy. This achievement highlights India’s expanding technological capabilities.
India’s focus on enhancing its medium- and long-range missile capabilities has intensified since the 1990s due to increasing strategic rivalry with China.
Following the successful test of Mission Divyastra, India has joined a select league of nations possessing MIRV (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles) capabilities.
Only a select number of nations such as the United States, Russia, China, the UK, and France have equipped their intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles with MIRV technology, substantially influencing the global strategic equilibrium.
MIRV significantly enhances a country’s nuclear deterrence capability by ensuring that it can overcome enemy defenses and retaliate effectively in case of a nuclear attack. A single MIRV-equipped missile can do the job of multiple single-warhead missiles, providing substantial offensive power from fewer launchers.
Moreover, alongside actual warheads, MIRV missiles can deploy decoys to confuse enemy radar and missile defense systems, requiring advanced technology to make decoys credible.
