Defence: Indian Nucler Missile Arsenal

This post focuses on the important nuclear missiles in our defence arsenal. It mostly covers surface-to-surface missiles. Other missiles will also be covered in a subsequent post. AGNI : The Agni missile is a group or series of Medium Range Ballistic missiles made by India .  Dr Avinash Chander is the man behind  the series of AGNI missiles .   Agni missiles use a strap-down INS System for navigation. There are 6 missiles in Agni Series :  AGNI I  , AGNI II  , AGNI III , AGNI IV , AGNI V , AGNI VI . AGNI I : It is a medium based ballistic missile developed by India. For the very first time , It was tested in the Test range of Chandipur in 1989. Agni I weighs 12000 kg and has a length of 15  . It can move with a speed of 2.5 km per second. It is capable of carrying warheads of 1000 kg . Agni I has a range of 700 km with an effective accuracy of 25 m CEP (Circular Error Probable). AGNI II : It is an Intermediate Range Ballistic missile . Agni 2 was first tested on 11 april 1999 at 9:47 am in Bay Of Bengal . With length 20 m and diameter 1.30 m , Agni 2 has a weight of 16000 kg. It can carry a warhead load up to 1000 kgs. It has a speed of 3.9 km/sec with a range of 2000 – 3000 km . When carrying less load , Agni 2 can even achieve a range of 3500 km . One of the most impressive quality of Agni 2 is high accuracy . It has a accuracy of 40m CEP. Agni II can be deployed very quickly , within 15 minutes and each missile cost 35 crores. AGNI III :   Agni III is an Intermediate based ballistic Missile. It has a length of 16.7 m , diameter 1.85 m with weight of 48,000 kg .It is a ballistic missile that can be used in the delivery of nuclear material.  It is one of the most important missiles of Indian Defence system . This missile is capable of carrying warhead of weight up to 2000 kg and has an accuracy of 40 m CEP and has a range of 3500 – 5000 km. AGNI IV : Agni 4 is the 4th missile in the family of Agni.It is a Intermediate range ballistic Missile.  It has a length of 20m with weight 17,000 kg . This missile is very light in weight as compared to other previous missiles in the Agni family . It was successfully test fired on 15th November 2011. It can carry up to 1000 kg of warheads and have a range of 3500 – 4000 km. By this missile , India is now able to reach targets across Asia and Europe. AGNI V : Agni 5 is an Intercontinental range ballistic missile . This missile is heavier than the previous missiles in the Agni series , and weighs 50,000 kg.It has a length of 17.5 m with diameter of 2 m. Agni 5 was successfully test-fired on 19th April 2012 at 8:05 am . It has a range of 5000 km and can carry warheads up to 1500 kgs. Development of Agni 5 is still in process.  It has been assumed that it will be operational by 2014 – 2015. PRITHVI : Prithvi is the first short range ballistic missile built under “Integrated Guided Missile Development Program” in 1983. It is a tactical nuclear weapon and has 3 variants : Prithvi I , Prithvi II , Prithvi III . PRITHVI 1 – Prithvi 1 is a short range surface missile . It can carry warheads upto 1000 kg and has a range of 150 km. It weighs 4400 kg and has a length of 9 m. It has an accuracy of 10-50 m CEP . India made this missile with European support. The body of this missile is made up of an alloy of aluminium. This missile falls on its target at an angle of 80 degree. PRITHVI II – Prithvi II is the enhanced version of Prithvi 1. This new version of Prithvi I has range of 250 km and weighs 4600 kg .The missile in 8.56 m in length with diameter of 1.1 m. Indian air force is the primary user of this missile. It can carry a payload of 500-1000 kg.This missile have accuracy of 50 m CEP. The accuracy of this missile makes it a battlefield weapon of choice. PRITHVI III : It is a ship to surface missile . This missile has a capability of carrying 1000 kg warheads to a distance of 350 km. This missile weighs 5600 kg and has a length of 8.56 m. It has a range of 350-600 km. Prithvi 3 was first tested in 2000 . Till yet , this missile have not become completely operational due to some of the deficiencies in it.