History
By the start of 1980's, DRDL had developed competence in the fields of propulsion, navigation and manufacture of materials. Thus, India’s political and scientific leadership, which included Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Defence Minister R. Venkataraman, V.S. Arunachalam (Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister), decided that all these technologies should be consolidated.
This led to the birth of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. Dr. Abdul Kalam, who had previously been the project director for the SLV-3 programme at ISRO, was inducted as the DRDL Director in 1983 to conceive and lead it. While the scientists proposed the development of each missile consecutively, the Defence Minister R. Venkataraman asked them to reconsider and develop all the missiles simultaneously. Thus, four projects, to be pursued concurrently, were born under the IGMDP:
- Short range surface-to-surface missile (code-named Prithvi)
- Short range low-level surface-to-air missile (code-named Trishul)
- Medium range surface-to-air missile (code-named Akash) and
- Third-generation anti-tank missile (code-named Nag).
The Agni missile was initially conceived in the IGMPD as a technology demonstrator project in the form of a re-entry vehicle, and was later upgraded to a ballistic missile with different ranges. As part of this program, the Interim Test Range at Balasore in Orissa was also developed for missile testing.
Read more about this topic: Integrated Guided Missile Development Program
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