New Delhi: The success of Mission Divyastra — Agni-5 missile modified with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle technology — has made the country, especially Kerala, proud.
The team of DRDO scientists behind the modified edition of Agni-5, which could deliver multiple nuclear warheads, was headed by Sheena Rani of Thiruvananthapuram. She is a senior scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
Rani, who took her degree in Electronics and Communication from the College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram, was with the VSSC in the Kerala capital for eight years. After becoming a part of the Pokhran atomic test in 1998, she joined the DRDO.
India on Monday, March 11, successfully conducted the test flight of Agni-5. Rani, who has been associated with the Agni missile project since 1999, is currently based in Advanced Systems Laboratory in Hyderabad.
The Agni-5 missile with 'multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV)' tested from APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha accomplished the designed parameters. The MIRV feature ensures that a single missile can deploy multiple warheads at different locations, sources said.
Agni-V missile has a range of up to 5,000 km and it can bring almost the entire Asia including the northernmost part of China as well as some regions in Europe under its striking range.
India has already carried out a number of tests of Agni 5 but it was for the first time that the flight test was carried out with MIRV. The countries that have missiles with MIRV capabilities are the US, Russia, the UK, China and France.
The weapon system is equipped with indigenous avionics systems and high-accuracy sensor packages, which ensured that the re-entry vehicles reached the target points within the desired accuracy. The capability is an enunciator of India's growing technological prowess. The Agni 1 to 4 missiles have ranges from 700 km to 3,500 km and they have already been deployed.