What Is MIRV, Technology Successfully Demonstrated By DRDO And Possessed Only By Handful Of Nations

Mission Divyastra: India greatly enhanced its strategic nuclear warfare capability on Monday with the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO's) successful test firing of the indigenously developed Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) using the multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) technology.

The test launch, the first of its kind in India, was conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha as part of 'Mission Divyastra'. With the successful capacity demonstration, India joined an elite club of nations that possess MIRV capacity. Until Monday, only the US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Pakistan had the confirmed capacity to integrate missile systems with the military technology.

What Is MIRV?

A MIRV is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads individually capable of undertaking flight in different directions to hit multiple targets spread over a large area.

MIRV Key Features

- Since multiple warheads can be simultaneously deployed using MIRV, the technology enables striking multiple targets, even if placed hundreds of kilometres apart.

- Along with live warheads, MIRV also carries multiple decoys. When deployed alongside the actual warheads, the decoys enhance the chances of the intended targets being hit successfully by confusing air defence systems.

- The number of warheads in the missile system can also be increased based on the requirements, defence sources cited by news agency ANI said after the DRDO's successful test launch of Agni-V on board a MIRV.

'Proud Of DRDO'

Following India's achievement of the historic feat in the domain of nuclear warfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter): "Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missiles with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology."

Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 11, 2024

All Mission Parameters Accomplished

During the test flight under 'Mission Divyastra', various telemetry and radar stations tracked and monitored multiple re-entry vehicles, ANI said in its report. The mission accomplished the designed parameters.

(With inputs from ANI)