PM lauds DRDO for 1st flight test of Agni-5 under ‘Mission Divyastra’
Speed of infra growth will be accelerated manifold: Modi
NEW DELHI: India on Monday successfully carried out the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile, capable of deploying multiple warheads, under its ‘Mission Divyastra’, joining a select group of nations having such a capability.
“The missile with ‘multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV)’ tested from APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha accomplished the designed parameters, the Defence Ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the successful test. “Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry
Vehicle (MIRV) technology,” Modi said on ‘X’. The director of ‘Mission Divyastra’ is a woman scientist. The MIRV feature ensures that a single missile can deploy multiple warheads at different locations, sources said. Agni-V missile has a range of up to 5,000 km and it can bring almost the entire Asia including the northernmost part of China as well as some regions in Europe under its striking range.
India has already carried out a number of tests of Agni 5 but it was for the first time that the flight test was carried out with MIRV.
The countries that have missiles with MIRV capabilities are the US, Russia, the UK, China and France.
“The flight test named ‘Mission Divyastra’ was carried out from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha,” the defence ministry said in a brief statement.
GURUGRAM: PM Narendra Modi on Monday said the speed of implementation of infrastructure projects will be accelerated manifold in the next five years to make India the third largest economy in the world. Modi said he has inaugurated and laid the foundation of projects worth Rs 10 lakh crore so far this calendar year and added that he is running short of time for inaugurating projects. He was addressing a gathering after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for 114 National Highway projects across the country worth about Rs 1 lakh crore. Among key National Highway (NH) projects, Modi inaugurated the Haryana section of the landmark Dwarka Expressway. Modi took a dig at Congress, saying the opposition party and its ‘Ghamandiya’ alliance has lost sleep, seeing the speed at which development works are taking place in the country by his government. Modi stressed that he wants everything on a large scale, with great speed to achieve the target of making India a developed nation by 2047.