Nov 25, 20172 min read

Missiles of The Republic of India, that sends shivers down the spines of its enemies !!!

New Delhi: Nestled in a hostile neighbourhood, India has to maintain a credible and potent defence force for which it has developed a series of tactical, medium and long-range missiles to deal with the threat posed by two nuclear adversaries – China in the north and Pakistan on its west. With the historic and successful test-firing of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos from an Indian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi-role air superiority fighter jet on November 22, India is moving towards developing the capability of launching pinpoint aerial attacks on enemy targets on land and sea, and in all weather conditions day or night.

With the IAF version of the BrahMos, India has added another lethal and potent weapons platform in its arsenal which already includes land and sea-based missiles. Apart from BrahMos, India already has the Agni, Prithvi, Nirbhay, and Dhanush series of missiles in its arsenal while submarine-launched ballistic missiles Sagarika and Shaurya along with Prahaar and Agni-V are in the development stage.

India’s missile arsenal serves a number of purposes in New Delhi’s defense strategy. Fundamentally, its ballistic missile arsenal is a means to deliver nuclear weapons to deter both Pakistan and China. The latter requirement has pushed India to develop longer range missiles and to diversify its delivery platforms beyond mobile land-based missiles. To this end, India is developing ship- and sub-launched ballistic missiles, and has collaborated with Russia on cruise missile development.

Ostensibly these developments are all to support India’s minimum deterrence doctrine, but as their missile arsenal develops, doubts grow about how firmly they will hew to that doctrine. In particular, the developments of both canister launched missiles, which can be fired much more quickly, and MIRV technology, which was often considered a first strike technology during the Cold War, have raised questions about the future trajectory of New Delhi’s posture. Still there is little discussion in India about abandoning its declared no-first-use doctrine, and many of these moves can be thought of as responses to developments in the Chinese arsenal.

Missiles of India and their specifications :-

Missile Class Range Status

Surya ICBM 13,000-16,000 km In Development

Agni-6 ICBM 8,000-12,000 km In Development

Agni-5 ICBM 5,000-8,000 km Testing Phase

Agni-4 IRBM 3,500-4,000 km Operational

Agni-3 IRBM 3,000-5,000 km Operational

Agni-2 MRBM 2,000-3,500 km Operational

Agni-1 SRBM 700-1,200 km Operational

Sagarika/Shaurya SRBM 700 km Testing Phase

Prithvi-3 SRBM 300-350 km Operational

Prithvi-2 SRBM 250-350 km Operational