The Agni III being test-launched off the Orissa coast. (PTI)

New Delhi, May 12: India’s military science establishment has been given the political nod to develop a missile with a range of 5,000km-plus that it says it will deliver in two years.

India’s missile development programme was so far limited to the development of the 3,000km-plus Agni III that was tested for the third time last week (May 7) though other programmes were put on the drawing board.

“We have been asked to develop the capability which we believe we have,” Avinash Chander, who is emerging as India’s latest “missile man”, having led the team that developed the Agni III, said here today.

Asked what the rationale for the development of the Agni V was, Chander explained: “The idea is to be able to develop a missile that can be targeted at threats across the region from depth areas where it can be concealed or put beyond the reach of adversaries.”

The Agni III, which Chander said was tested successfully and met all parameters, itself allows India to fire a long-range missile from depth. “But with the Agni V you do not have to fire from close to the borders.”

The Agni III is said to be a missile that brings even Beijing within its range when fired from northern India. With the Agni V — Chander said there was no separate programme for an Agni IV — more targets can be covered from a firing base that would be located at a greater distance from an international border.

India’s Agni III missile test launches the country in a select group of nations that have missiles of comparable range but it is still not really in the same league as China.

Beijing has missiles to cover nearly every range up to 10,000km and two years back also demonstrated a missile that shot down a dead satellite in space.

“I am not bothered by names such as ‘Inter Continental’ and ‘Intermediate Range’. We are told a 5,000km range missile is what the country wants and that is what we are working on right now,” Chander told The Telegraph. “The Agni III has demonstrated capabilities and with modifications we can extend the range.”

Asked to put it in layman’s terms, Chander said scientists will add a third stage to the Agni III without a substantial increase in its dimensions (about 16 metres in length and weighing about 48 tonnes).

The Agni III is propelled by a two-stage rocket motor and launched from a pad that is transported on railway tracks.

The Agni V would be “road mobile”, meaning the launcher could be transported on a wheeled vehicle. The Agni V adds a new dimension to India’s missile programme.

It was not envisaged as part of the Intermediate Guided Missile Development Programme pioneered by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The Agni I is said to have a range of about 700km and meant for deployment in the western sector, meaning that it brings within its range targets in Pakistan.

The Agni II has a range extendable up to 2,000km and is also meant for targets in Pakistan but from areas away from the western border. Both the missiles are in the process of being inducted into new missile regiments being raised by the army.

The Agni III is envisaged as being deployable in northern India for potential targets in the north and the east. It is to be inducted into the army next year (2009) after possibly one more test.

With the Agni V, Avinash Chander said, India would develop the capability to simultaneously aim at targets in different directions.

The missile could be armed with multiple warheads — bombs that could be launched from a single delivery system and intended to engage more than one target and/or beat interceptor missiles with decoys.