Agni-P missile moves towards induction after user trials

The announcement of India firing an submarine launched missile from INS Arihant and the surfacing of the most powerful USS West Virginia in Arabian Sea are part of strategic messaging to wolf warriors in China.

Published on: Oct 23, 2022, 09:38:54 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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New Delhi: With the test trials and development stage of the medium-range nuclear Agni-P missile completed after October 21 test-firing, the latest generation weapon has moved closer to induction and mass production with Strategic Forces Command ready to conduct user trial of the delivery platform.

Agni Prime is the next generation medium range missile that will replace the older Agni missiles in this range

After induction into Strategic Forces Command arsenal, the missile will become the prime deterrent in the 1000-2000 km range with Agni-5 providing the full cover to India against regional adversaries. The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) can produce a longer-range missile than Agni-5 provided the Modi government revises its nuclear options and gives approval to a longer-range delivery platform.

According to missile experts, the development trials of Agni-P are complete with three tests, the first one of which was conducted off Balasore on June 28, 2021, and second on December 18, 2021. The 10-meter-long missile with flexi nozzles and composite motor can be fired from mobile launchers and thus has a higher rate of survivability in the event of worst-case scenario.

While for India the winter months are normally used for test-firing and trials, the Agni-P trial came a day after US surprisingly announced the surfacing of top-of-the-line nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Virginia at an undisclosed location in Arabian Sea. This was preceded by India announcing the user firing of submarine launched ballistic missile from its own ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant this month. This accompanied by deepening of Japan-Australia defence cooperation as well as public statement by US Pacific Commander that India was indispensable ally to Washington in the Indo-Pacific bodes well for the future of the QUAD grouping.

The strategic messaging both by the US and India in the Indo-Pacific came at the time when President Xi Jinping was on his way to get reelected the third time and become China’s new Chairman Mao and rival Washington as the numero uno military power in the world. That President Xi is totally in command of Chinese Communist Party was evident from the unceremonious exit of his predecessor Hu Jintao from the Saturday’s closing session of the party’s twice a decade orchestrated Congress. The consolidation of power by dictators President Xi and his “no limits” ally Russian President Vladimir Putin increases uncertainty in the world with Taiwan on Beijing’s and Ukraine on Moscow’s cross-sights.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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