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India rail-based missile launch: Thus far, only Russia, the US, China, and possibly North Korea had the capability of launching long range ballistic missiles from rail-based platforms. India now joins this club.
Agni-P missile test: In the early hours of Thursday, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) test-fired the Agni-Prime (Agni-P) missile from a rail-based mobile launcher.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO and the Strategic Forces Command for the test, stating that it had put India in a “group of select nations” who have developed “canisterised launch systems” that can operate out of the railway network.
Thus far, only Russia, the US, China, and possibly North Korea had the capability of launching long range ballistic missiles from rail-based platforms.
Capability to strike back
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Mobile launch platforms are crucial to a country’s second strike capabilities: that is, a country’s ability to survive a nuclear attack and then launch its own counterattack. This is especially important for India, which has a declared “no first use” nuclear doctrine, meaning that it will only use nuclear weapons in retaliation to an enemy nuclear attack.
Developments in satellite imagery, mobile sensing, and missile technology have made stationary launchers vulnerable to enemy attacks. “Silos are increasingly vulnerable to both nuclear and conventional strikes due to improvements in missile accuracy,” Thomas MacDonald, of the Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in his paper ‘Tracking mobile missiles’.
This has put a premium on mobile launch platforms, which are seen by military strategists as much more survivable in case of all out war. Such platforms include submarines, aircraft, and ground-based mobile launchers that can be operated on roads or rail.
Why rail-based launchers for missiles?
Rail-based platforms come with certain specific benefits.
* Road-based systems can only be operated in certain routes, where the dimensions of the road and its quality allow heavy missiles and launchers to be transported. While railway systems too are limited by the extent of a country’s rail network, India’s roughly 70,000-km route can carry missiles to all corners of the country without the need for preparation, like fixing potholes or widening bottlenecks.
* There are thousands of tunnels in India’s railway network. These can be used by rail-based launchers to hide from enemy satellite surveillance. In fact, the capability to launch from the tracks means that the launcher can be kept in hiding till the very last moment before the missile is deployed.
* Compared with submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), rail-based platforms are significantly cheaper to construct and maintain. As such, it is far more efficient to scale up such platforms than to maintain a fleet of ballistic missile submarines.
Agni-P: upgrade to Agni I
India’s hailed Agni series of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles was initially developed in the late 1980s. Agni-I, a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM) with a range of 700-1,000 km, was tested in 1989.
While the Agni-I platform continues to serve a specific use case, defence planners have long felt the need to upgrade some of its systems. Thus was born the Agni-P, which combines Agni-I’s range with propulsion and navigation technologies borrowed from the Agni-IV and Agni-V missiles.
With a mass of 11,000 kg, Agni-P is a two-stage solid-fuel propelled missile with an operational range of 1,000 km to 2,000 km. It can carry high explosive, thermobaric or nuclear warheads.
After the testing of a nuclear-capable version in 2021, Defence Minister Singh had said: “The Agni P missile would further strengthen India’s Credible Deterrence capabilities”.
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