Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India successfully conducted flight trial of an Advanced Agni missile with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targeted ReEntry Vehicle) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha on May 8.
In a social media post, the Defence Ministry said that the missile was flight tested with Multiple payloads, targeted to different targets spatially distributed over a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region.
‘With this successful trial, India once again demonstrated the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system.
India Complimenting the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Indian Army, and industry on the successful flight test, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “This will add an incredible capability to the country’s defence preparedness against the growing threat perceptions.”
Telemetry and tracking were carried out by multiple ground- and ship-based stations. These systems tracked the entire missile trajectory from lift-off to the impact of all payloads. Flight data confirmed that all mission objectives were met during the trial, the ministry said.
“With this successful trial, India once again demonstrated the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system. This missile is developed by DRDO laboratories with the support of industries across the country,” it said. On May 7, the DRDO and the Indian Air Force (IAF) had also successfully conducted the maiden flight-trial of Tactical Advanced Range Augmentation (TARA) weapon off the coast of Odisha.
Glide system
TARA, the modular rangeextension kit, is India’s first indigenous glide weapon system that converts unguided warheads into precisionguided weapons. TARA has been designed and developed by the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, along with other DRDO laboratories, to enhance the accuracy of a lowcost weapon for neutralising ground-based targets. It is the first glide weapon to utilise state-of-the-art lowcost systems. The development of the kit has been undertaken with Development cum Production Partners (DcPP) and other Indian industries, which have already commenced production.
