New Delhi: Successfully testing of medium range K-5 ballistic missile by India on Sunday will push Pakistan —the neighbouring rival of India to test one of its new missile it is already working on. Indian K-5 ballistic missile has capacity to strike range of around 1,500 kilometres, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal, reports Dispatch News Desk (DND).
Sagarika/K-15 was developed by India already and deployed at the DRDO’s missile complex in Hyderabad. The complex consists of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (D.R.D.L.), the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) and the Research Centre, Imarat (RCI).
DRDL designed and developed the missile, while the ASL provided the motors and propulsion systems. The RCI’s contribution was in avionics, including control and guidance systems and inertial navigation systems.[6] K-15 has a range of around 700 km with 1,000 kg warhead and around 1,900 km with 180 kg warhead. This will also get help from Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), expected to be ready by 2014, to ensure guaranteed national access to precision navigation. These will enable high accuracy required for precision strike.
The K family of missiles is a series of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) developed by India to boost its second-strike capabilities and thus the nuclear deterrence. Information about this family of missiles has mostly been kept classified. “The classified ‘K’ missile family” is known as the “Black Project” which DRDO officials are covertly working on. It is reported that “the top secret indigenous “K” missiles are faster, lighter and stealthier.”
Nuclear triad is the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. Development phase of the K-5 missile, which is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), was over by India and it is now ready for deployment on various platforms including the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant which is under development.