Radars and telemetry stations tracked multiple re-entry vehicles during Mission Divyastra on 11 March 2024. The defence ministry described the flight from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island as Agni-5’s first successful test with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle technology. It was a new milestone for an Indian-developed strategic missile, rather than the beginning of the Agni programme. [1]
MIRV technology allows separate re-entry vehicles to be directed towards different targets. The official announcement said the mission met its designed parameters. It did not disclose the number of warheads carried, the size of an operational MIRV force or a date for its deployment. The public record supports the flight-test milestone. [1]
A programme across governments
Agni grew from the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, started in 1983. A 2012 parliamentary reply listed Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and an Agni technology demonstrator among its projects. It explained that the demonstrator’s re-entry technology had been used in the later Agni missile series. [2]
Agni-V’s maiden flight took place on 19 April 2012, during Manmohan Singh’s government. The contemporary account recorded three propulsion stages and a range above 5,000 kilometres. DRDO laboratories had already developed the propulsion, navigation and guidance work on which subsequent flights depended. [3]
The milestones during Modi’s governments therefore belong to a continuing scientific and military programme. Political approval and funding sustained it; the design, integration and testing depended on laboratories, industry and the armed forces over successive administrations. [1] [2] [3]
Tests with different purposes
The Strategic Forces Command oversaw another Agni-5 test on 20 August 2025. The ministry said operational and technical parameters were validated. That announcement did not identify the flight as another MIRV test, so it cannot be used to fill gaps in the Divyastra disclosure. [4]
A month later, on 24 September, DRDO and the command tested Agni-Prime from a specially designed rail-based mobile launcher. The ministry described a canisterised system with independent launch equipment, communications and protection, and a missile designed for ranges up to 2,000 kilometres. Moving the launcher by rail adds another deployment option to the programme. [5]
The same release made a useful distinction: road-mobile Agni-P had already been inducted after flight trials, while the new rail launch would enable future induction of rail-based systems. A successful demonstration and an operationally introduced system were different stages, even within one announcement. [5]
Beyond the Agni family
DRDO also reported a successful long-range hypersonic missile flight-trial on 16 November 2024. Hyderabad’s missile-complex laboratories, other DRDO establishments and industry partners developed the weapon. The ministry gave a design range greater than 1,500 kilometres and said tracking data confirmed terminal manoeuvres and impact. It announced a trial, rather than a production run or service commissioning. [6]
These public records show indigenous development moving through distinct technical and military checkpoints. At the September 2025 checkpoint, one Agni-Prime launch system was reported in service and another had completed its first rail launch—a precise account of progress without assuming that every tested configuration had already entered the arsenal. [5]