India Unveils Game-Changing Missile – Meet the Rail-Launched Agni-Prime

India just made a major move to shake up its defense strategy, and it's all thanks to a new missile called the Agni-Prime. Think of it as the ultimate surprise weapon – this cutting-edge missile can be launched from a train! Yes, you heard that right.

Why a Train?​

Normally, powerful missiles like this are housed in fixed locations or moved around on big trucks – easy targets for enemies to spot. The Agni-Prime hides in plain sight on India's huge rail network. Need to send a powerful message to a potential adversary near Pakistan or up in Tibet? Boom, the Agni-Prime shows up when they least expect it.

Agni-Prime vs. Old-School Missiles​

This isn't just about playing hide-and-seek. India's military planners are way ahead of the curve – even back in the Cold War, the Soviets used rail-launched missiles to keep their enemies guessing.

Now, India's taking that idea to the next level. But wait, there's more! The Agni-Prime is also said to have something called a "maneuverable reentry vehicle" – basically, this means it can swerve mid-flight, making it super hard to shoot down.

The Bottom Line​

The Agni-Prime isn't ready for action quite yet – they're still building a specialized train car for it. But once it's up and running, this missile has the potential to completely change how India defends itself.

 

[shivkumar sinha]

Considering chinese threats, Bharat must rapidly bolster its nuclear strike posture with sufficient ambiguity in NFU doctrines. To neutralise chinese aggressive designs , Bharat must deploy 1500+ nuclear warheads in triad configuration within a decade.

 

[Superpower Bharat]

A temporary Indian jugad of Hypersonic glide vehicle... Well done DRDO

 

[neil]

Does it really have MARV..? I thought we only just finished with MIRV... Have we really evolved the tech so fast to start implementing the MARV level already?

 

[Sandeep]

This is a very important and crucial capability gap that we faced previously as moving missiles by rail means it can reach the area directly at a fast speed, move to different towns or cities, bypass poorly maintained or narrow roads and it doesn't require the usual slow moving, traffic prone and predictable truck. So it's important to make use of the railway network to ensure we don't just remain reliant on trucks and roads to move missiles as sometimes we might not be able to use it so we need to diversify our method of transport and deployments.

India should also develop this for the future upcoming new missiles of all types and ranges. Another key requirement that we need to develop are some underground and hard to detect missile silos in various regions so that our nuclear missiles are kept safe and difficult to destroy if we suffer a first strike attack. Although they are expensive to build they will be in use and hold different types of missiles for decades so it's a long term vision and perspective that we build and operate them.

 

[Akshat]

A temporary Indian jugad of Hypersonic glide vehicle... Well done DRDO

Not even close. This is a quasi ballistic missile, nothing more. A closer match to hypersonic missiles will probably be Shaurya missile.

 

[kumar]

MARV in agni prime and now rail launch able is good news indeed.