Story of self-reliance

V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director General, announces the successful launch of Agni-V. On his left is Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO. Behind them is V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory , DRDO, Hyderabad.-V.V.KRISHNAN V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director General, announces the successful launch of Agni-V. On his left is Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO. Behind them is V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory , DRDO, Hyderabad.

A DAY prior to the launch, V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, declared, After tomorrow's launch is successful, I can say that in terms of technology, all the scientists of the DRDO would have fulfilled the dream put into their eyes by Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 1990 for launching a long-range ballistic missile with a high indigenous content. I have received good wishes from Mr Kalam for this launch and I wish he was here [on Wheeler Island] with us. I am sure he is eager to listen to the good news of a successful launch.

Saraswat attributes this confidence to the pointed approach and professionalism practised in the last 25 years by missile technologists, hardware and software engineers, and technicians of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It was no surprise, he said, that it was a copybook flight.

Saraswat, who is also Director General, DRDO, was proud that the indigenous content in this missile was higher than 80 per cent because of the DRDO's decision to join hands with industry and academic institutions. As many as 300 industries across India manufactured various components and subsystems for the missile, he said.

From a single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi with a range of 150 km, first launched in February 1988, to Agni-V in April 2012 with a range of more than 5,000 km, was a giant leap in 25 years for India, said Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO. We had the first Prithvi launch in 1988, the Agni Technology Demonstrator in 1989, the weaponised Agni in 1999, and what you see today is Agni-V, he added.

This symbolises a major, massive jump in the technologies and the capability of the DRDO because once you have a range of 5,000 km, the same missile [Agni-V] can go to a height of 2,500 km with a short range and you can hit any object and satellite at that height. The same modules can put small satellites in orbit and multiple warheads, Chander said.

India now has a battery of powerful missiles, which include Agni-I, Agni-II, Agni-III, Agni-IV and Agni-V in the Agni series, and Prithvi with its Air Force and naval variants, all of which are surface-to-surface missiles. Besides, it has Akash, the surface-to-air missile; BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile; Nag, the anti-tank missile; and the K-15 missile which is launched underwater and will be integrated with India's nuclear-powered submarine, Arihant. K-15, with a range of 700 km, has already gone into production. The DRDO has developed Shourya, which is the land version of K-15.

The DRDO is developing the K-4 missile, which will also be launched from a submarine. K-4 will have a range of more than 3,000 km. The first flight test of Nirbhay, the subsonic cruise missile with a range of 750 km to 1,000 km, will take place soon from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore, Odisha.

Missile development in India is a saga of self-reliance and sustained struggle, with the pioneers learning by reverse engineering and battling technology denial regimes such as the Missile Technology Control Regime (Missile shield, Frontline, February 13, 2009).

The MTCR, with the United States at its head, targeted India after the successful tests of the Prithvi missile in February 1988 and the Agni in May 1989. Supply of computer processor chips, radio frequency devices, electro-hydraulic components, maraging steel, magnesium alloy, gyroscopes, accelerometers, carbon fibre, glass fibre and, so on, was stopped to India.

Undaunted, the DRDO collaborated with public and private sector industries and academic institutions and developed maraging steel for rocket motors, carbon-carbon composites and resins for the re-entry vehicle of the Agni missiles, magnesium alloy, phase shifters for Rajendra radar for Akash missile, winding machines, and so on. The public sector undertaking, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI), the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), and private industries together developed the magnesium alloy which was denied to India by Germany. When the first plate of magnesium alloy rolled out of MIDHANI, Germany said it would give India any amount of magnesium alloy. The DRDO wrote back saying it was prepared to export the alloy to Germany ( Frontline, February 13, 2009). The DRDO always converted challenges into opportunities, said Chander.

T.S. Subramanian