{"id":40056,"date":"2024-03-12T12:27:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T06:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40056"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:35:39","slug":"mission-divyastra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mission-divyastra\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Divyastra \u2013 Agni 5 gets multiple warheads capability"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology?<\/li>\n<li>What are Agni Missiles?<\/li>\n<li>What are Agni-5 missiles?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India has announced the successful testing of an <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/agni-missile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Agni missile<\/a> capable of carrying multiple warheads meant to hit multiple targets simultaneously.\n<ul>\n<li>The test was carried out from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The success of Mission Divyastra was announced by PM Modi.<\/li>\n<li>This technology will ensure that a single missile can deploy multiple war heads at different locations.\n<ul>\n<li>This system is equipped with indigenous avionics systems and high accuracy sensor packages, which ensured that the re-entry vehicles reached the target points within the desired accuracy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>The MIRV can target multiple targets that can be hundreds of kilometers apart with a single missile.<\/li>\n<li>As of now, the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom are known to have MIRV-equipped missiles.\n<ul>\n<li>While Pakistan is developing such a missile system, Israel too is suspected to either possess the missile or be developing it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These missiles can be launched from land or from sea (or from a submarine).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Background\n<ul>\n<li>MIRVs were originally developed in the early 1960s to allow a single missile to carry multiple nuclear warheads, each capable of striking different targets.<\/li>\n<li>The inception of MIRV technology was done by the United States with deploying:\n<ul>\n<li>a MIRVed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) in 1970 and<\/li>\n<li>a MIRVed Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) in 1971.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What makes MIRV technology especially lethal?\n<ul>\n<li>In contrast to a traditional missile, which carries one warhead, MIRVed missiles warheads can be released from the missile at different speeds and in different directions.<\/li>\n<li>The development of MIRV technology is not easy.\n<ul>\n<li>It requires the combination of large missiles, small warheads, accurate guidance, and a complex mechanism for releasing warheads sequentially during flight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>India and MIRV\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2024\/3\/12\/11\/52\/50\/65eff4baa19f3005ca5a332f_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Agni Missiles<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>Over the years, India has been able to acquire a credible minimum nuclear deterrence. In this, the Agni missile system is integral to India\u2019s counter second-strike capability especially against China.<\/li>\n<li>The Agni category missiles are solid propelled ballistic missiles, ranging from short range missiles to intermediate range missiles (700-5000kms).\n<ul>\n<li>The road and rail mobility of this series provides greater chances of survivability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>History of Agni Missiles\n<ul>\n<li>The Agni missile is a component of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) that was launched by India in 1983.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>In 1989, India test fired Agni 1 category missile<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Missiles in Agni Family\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2024\/3\/12\/11\/52\/52\/65eff4bca19f3005ca5a3330_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li>\n<li>The family consists of short to long range surface to surface ballistic missiles. These are\n<ul>\n<li>Agni I &#8211; short-range ballistic missile (range \u2013 700 to 1200 km)<\/li>\n<li>Agni II \u2013 medium-range ballistic missile (range \u2013 2000 to 3500 Km)<\/li>\n<li>Agni III \u2013 intermediate-range ballistic missile (range \u2013 3000 to 5000 Km)<\/li>\n<li>Agni IV &#8211; intermediate-range ballistic missile (range \u2013 3500 to 4000 Km)<\/li>\n<li>Agni V \u2013 Inter-continental ballistic missile (range -5500 to 8000 Km)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Agni-5 missiles<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Agni is a long-range missile developed indigenously by <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/defence-research-and-development-organisation-drdo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">DRDO<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>This latest variant of the missile is equipped with what is known as MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle) technology.<\/li>\n<li>This Agni, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, has a range of more than 5,000 km, making it a long-range missile.\n<ul>\n<li>India announced the development of Agni V in 2007.<\/li>\n<li>The maiden flight test of Agni-V was conducted in April 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Agni-V uses a three-stage solid fuelled engine and can reach most parts of China. It is aimed mainly at thwarting the challenge from China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is a defense research and development (R&amp;D) agency under the Ministry of Defence in India. DRDO&#8217;s mission is to achieve self-reliance in critical defense technologies and systems, while equipping the armed forces with state-of-the-art weapon systems and equipment.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)?<\/h3>\n<p>The\u00a0<u>Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)<\/u> was a program by the Indian government to develop a range of missiles. It was conceived by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Director of the Defence Research &amp; Development Laboratory (DRDL) at the time, and launched in 1982\u201383. The program ended in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MIRV can target multiple targets that can be hundreds of kilometers apart with a single missile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}