Missiles by Dr. Gaurav Garg
Classification of Missiles as per Launch Mode:
1.Surface-to-Surface Missile: Source on the surface and target on the surface
2.Surface-to-Air Missile: Source on the surface and target in the air
3.Surface (Coast)-to-Sea Missile: Source on the surface (coast) and target in the sea
4.Air-to-Air Missile: Source in the air and target in the air
5.Air-to-Surface Missile: Source in the air and target on the surface
6.Sea-to-Sea Missile: Source in the sea (ship) and target in the sea (ship)
7.Sea-to-Surface (Coast) Missile: Source in the sea and target on the surface
8.Anti-Tank Missile: missile launched to destroy the tanks of enemies like Nag, Helina, Sant, Dhruvastra missile
Classification of missiles based on the engine used in them:
1. Solid Propulsion Missile: Fuel is in solid form.
2. Liquid Propulsion Missile: Fuel used in the engine of a missile is in liquid form.
3. Hybrid Missile: Fuel is in hybrid form i.e. both solid and liquid.
4. Cryogenic Missile: It has a cryogenic engine
5. Scramjet Missile: It has a scramjet engine.
6. Ramjet Missile: It has a ramjet engine.
Cruise Missile
● A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled (till the time of impact) guided (it doesn’t need guidance during its
flight) vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path and whose primary mission is to
place ordnance or special payload on a target.
● They fly within the earth’s atmosphere and use jet engine technology.
● Its flight is just like an airplane which also flies within the earth’s atmosphere (stratosphere).
● It is used to travel shorter distances (like 300-400 km) and hit the target with precision.
● Eg: Brahmos cruise missile
● Depending upon the speed such missiles are classified as:
1. Subsonic cruise missile – It flies at a speed lesser than that of sound, It travels at a speed of around
0.8 Mach (meaning 0.8 times the speed of the sound).
2. Supersonic cruise missile – It travels at a speed of around 2-3 Mach.
3. Hypersonic cruise missile – It travels at a speed of more than 5 Mach
Ballistic Missile
● A ballistic missile is a missile that has a ballistic trajectory over most of its flight path, regardless of whether or not it
is a weapon-delivery vehicle.
● During its flight, it goes out of the earth’s atmosphere and then again comes back to hit its target. Due to this, it can
travel long distances.
● Ballistic missiles are categorized according to their range, the maximum distance measured along the surface of
earth's ellipsoid from the point of launch to the point of impact of the last element of their payload.
● The missile carries a huge payload. The carriage of a deadly warhead is justified by the distance the missile travels.
● India still doesn’t have a good ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile which has a range of at least 5500kms). Agni
5 is an ICBM but can only travel through 5000-8000kms. But it is still not in use because right now we are doing the
trial of Agni 3.
● On missiles, a payload (like a nuclear bomb, etc) is carried. During its flight, when it goes out of the atmosphere it
throws down the useless back portion of the missile. The function of this back part is to give the missile the desired
velocity to escape the earth’s atmosphere (known as the escape velocity). Then after it has to be guided to come back
to earth to hit the target.
1958 to 1970
● The Push for Self-Reliance India's first missile program began in 1958 - the same year Prime Minister Nehru
approved the construction of a plutonium reprocessing plant at Trombay. This move was criticized by many as India
was still not fully developed and they opined that our priority should be to eradicate poverty.
● The project was a modest attempt to construct anti-tank guided missiles.
● In addition, the missile group examined the development of a liquid-fueled sustainer engine - most likely based on
the SA-2 from the Soviet Union. Both projects were undertaken by the DRDO and its principal missile laboratory,
the Defence Research, and Development Laboratory (DRDL).
1958 to 1970
● The program emphasized gaining scientific expertise and creating a technological base for eventually building
modern missiles indigenously.
● No plans were made in the short-term for the mass production of missile systems. However, the DRDO's technical
and organizational shortcomings, opposition from the armed services, and weak support from politicians and civilian
bureaucrats in the federal government resulted in the failure and ultimate termination of both projects.
● India received the French Centaure research rocket in May 1964 and began reproducing it with modifications.
● Indian engineers, therefore, had 20 years of rocket experience, including satellite launches and recovery, before the
country commenced a dedicated missile program in 1985.
1971 to 1980
● Technological Setbacks - Two major programs occupied Indian missile efforts in the 1970s - Project Devil and
Project Valiant.
● Project Valiant explored the development of a long-range ballistic missile with a range approaching 8,000 km but for
technological and bureaucratic reasons, leading officials in the DRDO were unenthusiastic about the project and
cited a crippling shortage of the scientific and engineering expertise needed to complete such an ambitious project.
● The project was shelved in 1974.
● In 1972, work began on Project Devil, an attempt to "acquire detailed knowledge" of an operational missile by
reverse-engineering (also called back engineering and involves deconstructing individual components of larger
products to extract design information from them) the Soviet-designed SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM).
● The project suffered monumental technological and capacity setbacks but fulfilled the core components of its
mission: "two solid-fuel boosters and a three-ton liquid sustainer engine" emerged from the effort, which would later
serve as the platform for the Prithvi missile series.
● Nevertheless, the project failed to replicate the SA-2, and funding for the project ended in 1980.
India's 1974 nuclear test
● India began making its first substantive achievements in missile development
after Indira Gandhi, a proponent of nuclear weapons, returned to power in
1980.
● The nuclear test was conducted for peaceful purposes and not for war.
● In 1982 a committee was formed which studied various options for missile
development and a year later, the committee unveiled the framework for the
Integrated Guided Missile Program (IGMDP).
● During this period, space programs were also strengthening, and in 1975, we
launched India’s 1 st satellite known as Aryabhatta.
● In what could be described as a 'decisive shift' in missile development plans,
the missile capability of Indian armed forces received a major fillip from
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) following the
launching of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme
(IGMDP) in 1983.
Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)
● IGMDP was conceived by renowned scientist Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam to enable India to attain self-sufficiency in the
field of missile technology.
● During this time, everyone was in favor of the development of missiles because of three wars with our neighbors
(China and Pakistan) in 1962, 1965, and 1971.
● Dr. Kalam, the then Director of Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), headed a Missile Study
Team to weigh the feasibility of the program. The team included members from the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO), the Army, Navy and Air Force, and Defence Production. Keeping in mind the
requirements of various types of missiles by the defense forces, the team recommended the development of five
missile systems.
● The IGMDP finally got approval from the Government of India on July 26, 1983.
● The ambitious, time-bound project brought together the country’s scientific community, academic institutions, R&D
laboratories, industries, and the three Services in giving shape to the strategic, indigenous missile systems.
● The missiles developed under the program were:--
● Short-range (150km) surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi
● Intermediate-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni
● Short-range low-level surface-to-air missile Trishul
● Third-generation anti-tank missile Nag
● Medium-range surface-to-air missile Akash
● The Agni, which was initially conceived as a technology demonstrator project in the form of a re-entry vehicle, was
later upgraded to a ballistic missile with different ranges.
● Dr. Kalam played a major role in the development and operationalization of Agni and Prithvi missiles.
● After achieving the goal of making India self-reliant in missile technology, DRDO on January 8, 2008, formally
announced the successful completion of IGMDP.
● The simultaneous development of the Prithvi and Agni missile series emerged from a debate amongst DRDO
officials in the early 1980s about whether to pursue liquid- or solid-fueled missiles.
● Solid-fuel proponents argued that the simple design features and easy maintenance of solid-fuel engines outweighed
the limited technological flexibility of liquid-fueled designs.
● Prior experience with liquid-fueled motors in the 1970s under Project Devil and Project Valiant eventually led
officials to pursue the liquid-fuel option for the Prithvi series, but they chose to use solid-fuel engines for the Agni
series.
● Prithvi-I provided India with a rudimentary short-range (150 km) option for deploying a limited nuclear strike
capability against Pakistan.
● By 1994, two successful flight-tests of the 1,400 km-range Agni-1 missiles confirmed India's re-entry vehicle
technology and demonstrated mastery of staging.
● The Agni program thus served as the foundation for the design and development of longer-range ballistic missile
systems, while the Prithvi remained the country's lone operational strategic missile.
● The latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s were characterized by the continued technological development of the
Prithvi and Agni ballistic missiles, and the pursuit of more sophisticated missile delivery options.
● The DRDO embarked on programs to develop longer-range versions of the Agni: Agni-II (3000 km) and Agni-III
(5000 km), and Prithvi: Prithvi-II (350 km) and Prithvi-III (600 km).
● In 2001, India successfully tested its first supersonic cruise missile, called BrahMos which was developed with
Russian collaboration. It was India’s first cruise missile.
● India’s ballistic missile defense got a boost in 2006 when the first tier in India’s ballistic missile defense system,
PAD/Pradyumna was tested.
● PAD is designed to neutralize missiles within a range of 300-2000 km up to a speed of Mach 5.0
● In 2007, the second tier called the Advanced Air Defense (AAD) was tested.
● In 2008, DRDO also began developing a sea-launched ballistic missile, the Sagarika, which was tested from
submersible pontoons.
● India and Israel also signed an agreement to jointly develop the Barak-8 surface to air missile (previously known as
LR-SAM and MR-SAM) that is designed to defend against airborne threats such as aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship
missiles, and UAVs. Sea- and land-based versions of the system exist. The first successful test of the sea-based
version was conducted in 2010.
● In 2012, India for the first time successfully tested the Dhanush missile. It is a variant of the surface-to-surface
Prithvi-3 missile and has been developed for the Indian Navy.
● It has a range of 350 km and is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads.
● In July 2013, India announced it would begin withdrawing the 17-year-old Prithvi-I and replacing it with the 150 km
solid-fueled, road-mobile Prahar missile, which was first tested in 2011. The Prahar is smaller, more maneuverable,
and faster to launch than the Prithvi-I. It has a maximum payload of 200 kg and is capable of carrying only
conventional or tactical nuclear weapons.
● The Agni ballistic missile family has also undergone significant recent improvements in range and sophistication.
Agni-III, with a range of over 3,200 km was inducted into the armed forces in 2011 after a series of successful tests
and user trials.
● India also successfully flight tested the Agni-IV, with a declared range of 4000 km multiple times since 2011 before
inducting it into the armed forces in 2014.
● The long-anticipated Agni-V has also been successfully tested multiple times since 2012. While its tested range of
5000 km falls short of ICBM status, the missile's range can be increased with relatively minor technological
adjustments; experts, therefore, consider the Agni-5 to be an ICBM. Even with a range of only 5,000 km, the Agni-V
could hit any target in China, including Beijing.
● The development of the indigenous Nirbhay long-range cruise missile has been hailed as a hallmark moment in
India's missile development. Nirbhay is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile designed and developed by
DRDO and is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads.
● It is currently under development and undergoing flight trials. As a member of the Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR), Russia could not jointly develop any missile beyond the 300 km range with a non-MTCR member.
However, with India’s acceptance into the MTCR in 2016, those restrictions are no longer valid. Consequently, India
and Russia announced that they will develop an extended range version of the BrahMos cruise missile.
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