As you may recall, after the Galwan Valley conflict in June last year, the Indian army vowed to greatly strengthen the proportion of domestically produced equipment in the future, and introduced a series of bills prohibiting the import of 101 kinds of weapons and equipment, including self-propelled guns, missile frigates, and helicopter gunships.
But soon, the reality that India's technology industry was too weak forced it to compromise and continue to purchase a large number of equipment. And India is about to import American MQ-9 drones in December this year, and the total size of the order is as high as $3 billion, and there is no doubt that the United States has once again used India as its own cash machine.
Compared with India's bizarre and down-and-out conventional weapons, they have performed well in areas such as launch vehicles and ballistic missiles. After all, these equipment are all heavy weapons of the country and are all strategic weapons and equipment. The focus, of course, is the "Agni" series of medium- and long-range ballistic missiles.
According to the latest reports in the Indian media, at the Dr. Abdul Karam Island Integrated Test Site in Odisha, India test-fired a Agni 5 long-range ballistic missile with extremely rare success. According to Indian officials, this ballistic missile is capable of hitting targets with extreme precision beyond a range of 5,000 kilometers. In fact, the test launch of the ballistic missile began as early as 2012, and so far it has been tested 8 times before it is in a relatively mature stage of technology.
Although the successful test launch of the ballistic missile has made India rejoice collectively, it still exposes a series of defects in India's missile industry. First of all, such a long research and development cycle is naturally an extremely weak foundation, and the success of this test does not mean that the missile can already be installed with the Indian army.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Indians originally wanted to develop an intercontinental missile, and many Indian media also called the Agni 5, but the range of the ICBM should reach at least 8,000 kilometers, and the Agni 5 is only 5,000 kilometers, which is obviously not qualified enough.
The ballistic missile is a three-stage solid-fuel missile, and from the aerodynamic appearance, it is only a level added to the Agni 3 medium-range missile. Its total weight has reached as much as 50 tons, a range of 5,000 kilometers, compared with the 50 tons/10,000 kilometer range of the Russian "Yars" missile, the poor performance of Indian missiles can be seen. The Agni-5 was blown away by the Indian media, but it was only a political necessity to make a big internal propaganda.
In addition, many people should be able to notice that all of India's Agni 5 ballistic missile test firings are currently conducted on Dr. Abdul Karam Island, and although the missile appeared in a mobile manner at the parade, there has not been a record of a single launch on a carrier vehicle so far.
Although the Agni 5 ballistic missile achieved cartridge launch, it still uses the original semi-trailer launcher. It should be known that many of the world's missile powers have long realized the "standard" of mobile launch, that is, the use of large TTEL, that is, "transportation, erection, and launch of three-purpose vehicles." Missiles can be transported by maneuver, set up temporary positions, and launched by maneuver. The Indian Agni-5 has no maneuvering ability and is even lower than North Korea.
India's comprehensive missile strength is still far from the world's advanced level, but the world situation is becoming increasingly turbulent, and many things must be stepped up, leaving India with little time.