TOP OF THE LINE

On March 11, Mission Divyastra propelled India into the select club of nations capable of hitting, through a single ballistic missile, several targets spread over hundreds of kilometres at the same time with multiple warheads.

- Amarnath K. Menon

The perfect launch of the indigenous Agni-V missile-and its successful integration with the Multiple Independentlytargetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) technology-from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha is being seen as a technological breakthrough.

MIRV technology allows multiple conventional/nuclear warheads, programmed to hit different targets at the same time, to be loaded on to a single missile delivery system. Till now, Agni missiles, India's primary land-based delivery systems for nuclear weapons, had the ability to carry one payload. Only five countries-the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom-have MIRV technology. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Agni-V has a range of 5,000 kilometres.