Agni-5 ICBM to be a reality next year

“Work is progressing satisfactorily in the development of Agni-5, which is expected to become a reality by 2011,” V K Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister and  Defence Research and Development Organisation chief said here on Wednesday.

If the trial succeeds, India will have a missile capable of striking deep inside China from deep inside India rather than being positioned on the border. Only a handful of nations currently have such a strategic capability. The Agni-5 is specially tailored for road-mobility, according to defence scientists.

With the canister having been successfully developed, all India’s future land-based strategic missiles are expected to be canisterised as well.

A major research programme on nuclear biological and chemical defence is also on the anvil. The programme was accorded permission recently by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Future DRDO research will focus on space security, cyber security, hypersonic vehicles, directed energy weapons and technology development efforts in smart materials, composites and micro-electro-mechanical-systems based sensors.