Bharat Rakshak

Wow sounds like it was launched in a depressed trajectory.

Bus is similar to the multi satellite launch during civilian sat launch

Each unit will be launched in a serial manner once the desired space location is reached

Scientists associated with Agni-V project are quite optimistic about its performances, as the first trial of Agni-IV on November 15 last year was highly satisfactory in terms of its 'control and guidance' system.

some data points. Minuteman3 has a 4th stage motor, that presumably stretches its max range. very low thrust liquid engine but as it only needs to push the MIRV section at light gravity, it does the job. this is likely the HAM (high alt motor) that Arun_S used to talk of.

Minuteman-III still being a missile with three solid-fuel stages, introduced in the post-boost stage (“bus”) an additional liquid-fuel propulsion system rocket engine (PSRE) that is used to slightly adjust the trajectory. This enables to dispense decoys or – in the past case of MIRV – dispense individual RVs to separate targets.

its news to me that the RV speed is NOT the max ever speed of the missile. 4 km/s maps to Mach14 onlee.

its best to assume a weapon of say 600kg to be on conservative side. thats what FBF we tested for the highest yield in the pok2 tests. lighter designs may exist, but without testing we will perhaps not risk them on the few strategic missiles we have.

HYDERABAD, APRIL 16:
The stage is set for the maiden test flight of Agni V, India's long range missile, with capability to reach 5,000 km.

Powered by the flying success of Agni-IV (over 3,500 km range) in 2011, Indian missile scientists will face their toughest test, as the home-grown missile, will have to reach inter-continental distances, soar great heights and survive very high temperatures, as it re-enters the earth's atmosphere and seeks to destroy its target.

Agni V, will cover approximately 1/8th of the Earth's circumference (which is 40,000 km). It will be a three-stage, all solid fuel powered, 17-metre tall, with capability to carry nuclear payload, said Mr Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles & Strategic Systems), DRDO.

The Wheeler island, off the coast of Orissa, is bustling with preparations, that have reached the final stages.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is targeting to launch its most ambitious, strategic, nuclear deterrent missile during the window of April 18-20.

“Elaborate preparations have been completed. The technological capability that we will achieve will be a game changer for Indian defence. The strategic options it provides are immense. The technological challenges we are trying to overcome are many. Only the US, Russia, France and China have the capability,” Mr Chander told Business Line, before going to the Wheeler Island for the big test.

The DRDO has proven most of the technological capability in Agni-IV. It has to be extended to higher temperatures in Agni-V. For example, the re-entry temperature for Agni-IV was from a high of 3,000 degree C to 50 degree C.

In the case of Agni-V it will be 5,000 degree C to a climb down of 50 degrees. This is very, very challenging in many ways, he said.

Unlike re-entry space vehicles, missiles re-enter at a much steeper angle of descent and in very few seconds. They face severe thermal effect. Both technology and material is needed to overcome this hurdle. Agni-V has its two upper stages completely built with composites (corrosion free and can withstand high temperatures).

Agni-V will see the test of several technologies and composites. It will see for the first time flying a large sized, composite rocket motor. It will have a very compact payload. New technologies to recover data will be deployed. An array of tracking stations, two ships in the high seas has been deployed, defence scientists explained.

If A 5 has a range of 5000 km with a 1500 kg payload (explosive / bomb), what would be the range with a 500 kg or a 1000 kg payload ? Would we be having a a weapon within say 300 kg ? What would be A 5's range with a 300 kg payload

K

But 600kg is still a long way away from the 1500kg payload that is being talked about. Assuming a single warhead, is it possible to estimate the impact on the range a 900kg reduction in payload might have? It should be substantial.

they should have gone for all out full-range shot to the shores of antarctica with this one. no more pussyfooting around.
but they love playing games, perhaps they hope to extract some mythical psyops value from constraining it to chinese range only, though everyone who is anyone knows the true range...yet the foreign media cannot officially criticise us unless we officially state and test the true range?

^^ The above article is from 2009.. A lot has happened in the past 2.5 years . (including the Agni 4 which was almost brought out of the hat..)

We ll have to wait for tomorrow ...I have a feeling that a lot of tallel/diltiel/ undies would be wet by tomorrow evening...

well, there was a student research (harvard?) the chippandas have canisters stored burried under the mountains, and huge launch facilities - like in star wars.

/Just pre-empting unnecessary jaddi shiver.

Hindu god of fire, but tagged ''the China Killer'' by the more sensationalist sections of the local press

China's nuclear arsenal still dwarfs India's by about 410 nuclear warheads to 70.

India's missile test has garnered neither the international attention nor the opprobrium of North Korea's failed test last week.

The Americans, while it suits them, will continue to ignore our progress just as they ignored the paki progress on the nuclear bum in the 80's and 90's. Acknowledging the reality may spark concerns at home and may force some kind of congressional action.

In the mean time, we will continue our steady progress, going on to field the '6000' km Agni 6 with MIRV/MaRV, etc.

1. Delayed detection by ground based radars/sensors and consequently reduced warning/reaction time.
2. Warheads streak towards their target at relatively flat reentry angles and relatively high reentry speeds.
3. Reduces the time of flight needed to strike at targets.

Overall complicates the task faced by missile defense.

they should have gone for all out full-range shot to the shores of antarctica with this one. no more pussyfooting around.
but they love playing games, perhaps they hope to extract some mythical psyops value from constraining it to chinese range only, though everyone who is anyone knows the true range...yet the foreign media cannot officially criticise us unless we officially state and test the true range?

Would it not reduce the range ? Would it consume more fuel for the same range ? Or a smaller payload for the same range ?

K

Aa gaya aa gaya picture wala article aa gaya.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a ... 325145.ece

Aa gaya aa gaya picture wala article aa gaya.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a ... 325145.ece

India will enhance its deterrent reach with the launch of its first intercontinental ballistic missile. However, China and Pakistan have powerful missiles of their own as well.

For India, Agni V is more than just its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). With a range of over 5,000 km, this road-and rail-mobile missile can be fired from deep within the country and still reach all parts of China, especially the latter's populous and economically important eastern seaboard.

The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) created Agni V by adding a third stage to Agni III, a missile with a range of 3,500 km while carrying a 1.5 tonne payload that was first successfully tested five years ago.

Both Agni III and V have a diameter of two metres, making them capable of carrying several warheads known as Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles (MIRV). (Agni I and II have a diameter of one metre and the first stage of the Agni IV has a diameter of 1.2 metres.)

Firing MIRVs requires what is known as a “Post Boost Control Vehicle,” a manoeuvrable platform that sits atop the rocket and holds the warheads. After the missile has lofted it into a ballistic trajectory, the platform must be able to release each warhead with the orientation and velocity needed to reach its target.

As India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has already demonstrated the ability to put multiple satellites into orbit in the course of a single launch, developing a Post Boost Control Vehicle should be technologically straightforward. However, developing compact nuclear warheads could be a significant hurdle in acquiring MIRV capability. Published information on U.S. systems suggests that each re-entry vehicle will need to weigh less than 500 kg. First generation missile-borne nuclear warheads typically weigh twice as much.

India now has a range of nuclear-capable Agni missiles in its arsenal, starting with Agni I that can strike targets 700 km away. These missiles use solid propellants and can therefore be launched at short notice. They are also carried on mobile launchers, making it more difficult for an enemy to locate and destroy them.

In China and Pakistan

But India's nuclear-armed neighbours, China and Pakistan, have powerful missiles of their own.

China's strategic forces still rely heavily on ballistic missiles using liquid propellants. Its first missile, the “Dong Feng 1” (DF-1), was a copy of the Soviet R-2 missile, and relied on technology and designs provided by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. The next missile, DF-2, was designed to be capable of landing a nuclear warhead on Japan.

The country then went on to build more advanced ballistic missiles, still using liquid propulsion, which also became the basis for its Long March launch vehicles. These include the DF-3, the DF-4 and the DF-5.

China switched to solid propulsion when it developed its first submarine launched ballistic missile, the “Ju Lang 1” (JL-1). The land version of the missile was designed as the “DF-21.”

A more powerful, solid propellant missile, the DF-31, is now beginning to be deployed. The submarine version of the missile, the JL-2, will be carried aboard China's new Type 094 Jin-class nuclear-powered submarines, the first of which was launched in 2004.

“China is progressively replacing its older liquid-fuelled DF-3 and DF-4 missiles with the new solid-fuelled two-stage DF-21 missile,” according to a 2010 assessment prepared by the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore.

Although it was within China's capabilities to equip the DF-31 with MIRVs, there was no clarity on whether this had actually been done, the assessment noted. Official U.S. sources have maintained that as the country was developing this capability, its DF-31 and all variants of that missile were currently equipped with only a single warhead.

A 2007 report from the NIAS group pointed out that China has deployed the DF-3, the DF-4 and the DF-21 missiles in bases in the Qinghai and Yunnan provinces. From those locations, these missiles would be able to reach all of India.

Pakistan, for its part, has produced a range of missiles using a mix of imported technology and indigenous capability.

Improving on sounding rocket technology supplied by the French company, Sud Aviation, to the Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), it developed the Abdali (also known as Hatf-1). But the missile is estimated to have a range of only about 100 km.

Its Ghaznavi missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead, is a shortened version of China's M11 solid propellant missile supplied by the latter in the 1990s.

Ghauri, which uses liquid propellants, is based on North Korea's No Dong missile. The technology for this missile was imported by the A.Q. Khan Laboratories, which provided uranium enrichment technology to the North Koreans. The range of this missile has been put at about 950 km with a 1,000 kg nuclear warhead.

China also appears to have supplied the technology for the solid propellant M9 missile, with the Pakistani version being called the Shaheen-1. The NIAS team believes that the Shaheen-2, which was first tested in March 2004, has involved a second stage being added.

The missile would then have a range of 1,200 km compared to 730 km for its predecessor. If so, large parts of India, including places as far south as Hyderabad, would be within its reach.

But the range estimated for the Shaheen-2 assumed that it has a diameter of one metre, notes Rajaram Nagappa, who heads the strategic studies group at NIAS. But it was difficult to accurately estimate the diameter from publicly available images of the missile. If, as some reports suggest, the missile has a diameter of 1.4 metres (the same as China's DF-21), then its range would be considerably greater.

“Though constrained by the availability and production of uranium, Pakistan has a credible deterrent structure in place that would be largely organised around the Shaheen-1 and -2 missiles,” according to the NIAS 2010 assessment.