What is the range capability of Agni-P Ballistic Missile?
- (a)1,000 – 2,000 km
- (b)2,000 – 3,000 km
- (c)3,000 – 4,000 km
- (d)4,000 – 5,000 km
Correct — A, 1,000 – 2,000 km. Agni-P, also called Agni Prime, is the sixth missile of the Agni series and is described by its developers as covering 1,000 to 2,000 kilometres with a payload of about 1.5 tonnes. It was flight-tested for the first time on 28 June 2021 from the Integrated Test Range, five months before this paper was written, which is why the range figure was fresh enough to ask about. The design is a two-stage solid-fuelled road-mobile ballistic missile carried in a sealed twin canister, so it travels by road or rail already mated with its warhead and needs very little preparation before launch, and it carries a manoeuvring re-entry vehicle. In the family it is the replacement at the short end — lighter than Agni-III and built with technologies proved on Agni-IV and Agni-V, but intended to take over the role of the older Agni-I and Agni-II rather than to reach further than them.
- (b)2,000 – 3,000 km — This is roughly where Agni-II sits — its range has long been given as about 2,000 kilometres. Agni-P was built to replace missiles in that bracket with newer technology, not to exceed it.
- (c)3,000 – 4,000 km — The Agni-IV bracket, generally put at about 3,500 to 4,000 kilometres. Agni-P borrows technology from Agni-IV, which is exactly the association that makes this option tempting.
- (d)4,000 – 5,000 km — The long end of the series, where Agni-V sits as the longest-ranged missile of the family. Agni-P is the newest of the series but not the farthest-reaching.
The Agni series is India's family of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and rising in range from the short-range Agni-I through Agni-II, Agni-III, Agni-IV to Agni-V. Newer entrants have moved towards canisterisation and road mobility, which shortens the time between a decision to launch and the launch itself and makes the launcher harder to find.
Missile questions are easiest to hold as a ladder. Fix two rungs you are sure of — Agni-II at about 2,000 kilometres and Agni-V at the top of the series — and the rest can be placed between them. Agni-P is the one that breaks the pattern of a new missile always going further, because it was designed as a modern replacement at the lower end, which is precisely what the question is testing. Note also the vocabulary the papers use: canisterised means stored and launched from a sealed container with the warhead already fitted, and a manoeuvring re-entry vehicle is one that can change course on the way down rather than following a fixed ballistic path.
- Agni-P covers 1,000 to 2,000 kilometres with a payload of about 1.5 tonnes.
- It was first flight-tested on 28 June 2021 from the Integrated Test Range.
- It is a two-stage, solid-fuelled, canister-launched, road-mobile ballistic missile with a manoeuvring re-entry vehicle.
- It is the sixth missile of the Agni series and is lighter than Agni-III, using technologies developed for Agni-IV and Agni-V.
- It is intended to replace the older and shorter-ranged Agni-I and Agni-II.
Newer does not mean longer — that assumption is what the three wrong options are built on.
- Assuming each new missile in a series must out-range the last.
- Confusing Agni-P with Agni-I; they occupy a similar bracket, but Agni-P is the newer replacement.
- Treating a manoeuvring re-entry vehicle as the same thing as multiple warheads; they are different capabilities.
As a straight range or category item on a recently tested Indian missile, or as a statements question on its propulsion, mobility and role.
The range of Agni-II missile is around
- (a) 500 km
- (b) 2000 km
- (c) 3500 km
- (d) 5000 km
Answer(b) 2000 km
The same series, the same question, twenty years earlier. That item asks for the range of Agni-II and the answer is about 2,000 kilometres — which is the upper edge of the bracket Agni-P was designed to take over, and the reason option (b) here is so tempting.
With reference to Agni-IV Missile, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is a surface-to-surface missile. 2. It is fuelled by liquid propellant only. 3. It can deliver one-tonne nuclear warheads about 7500 km away. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 only
Agni-IV, tested on the three things these questions always test — surface-to-surface or not, solid or liquid fuel, and range. Agni-P is solid-fuelled and surface-to-surface like Agni-IV, and it borrows technology from it, but its range is far shorter.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Agni-P (Agni Prime) is best described as
- (a)a liquid-fuelled single-stage missile launched only from silos
- (b)a two-stage solid-fuelled canisterised road-mobile ballistic missile
- (c)a supersonic cruise missile developed jointly with Russia
- (d)a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range above 5,000 km
Answer(b) a two-stage solid-fuelled canisterised road-mobile ballistic missile — it is carried in a sealed canister with the warhead already mated, which cuts launch preparation time.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Canisterisation of a ballistic missile primarily improves
- (a)the accuracy of the warhead at impact
- (b)the maximum range of the missile
- (c)the speed with which it can be readied and launched, and its survivability on the move
- (d)the payload it can carry
Answer(c) the speed with which it can be readied and launched, and its survivability on the move — the missile travels sealed and mated, so very little preparation is needed at the launch site.