Missiles of India: How They Work and How They Are Classified

IGMDP: The Programme That Built the Family

The IGMDP set out to build a family of strategic and tactical missiles at home, for all three services, with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam leading it from the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. It chose five missiles, one for each need. DRDO announced in January 2008 that the programme had met its aims and was wound up. The Hyderabad missile complex and the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha, where many tests are flown, carry his name.

Anti-tank missiles have their own page; DRDO's laboratories are on the DRDO page.

How Missiles Are Classified

Ask two questions of any missile: where is it fired from and what does it hit? and how does it fly? The first gives the class name.

The second question, how it flies, separates the two great families.

A ballistic missile needs special interceptors, covered in ballistic missile defence; a low cruise missile slips under the radar horizon and is met by layered air defence. PIB describes Pralay as a solid-propellant quasi-ballistic missile. In general, such a missile flies a flatter, lower path than a true ballistic one and can change course in flight, so its landing point is harder to predict. Official releases give no detail of Pralay's path.

Range Classes, Guidance and Propulsion

Range classes are conventions, and definitions vary between countries and books. India publishes few exact ranges, so releases name the class and skip the kilometres. The bands below are the common textbook ones.

Cruise missiles are grouped by speed: subsonic (below Mach 1), supersonic (Mach 1 to 5) and hypersonic (above Mach 5).

Guidance is how a missile finds its target, usually in three stages:

• Inertial navigation: gyroscopes and accelerometers measure the missile's own turns and speed. It needs no outside signal and cannot be jammed, but errors build up. NASM-SR uses a fibre-optic-gyroscope system.
• Satellite and data-link correction: GPS or India's NavIC fixes the position, and a radio link lets an operator re-target. NASM-SR's two-way link sends the seeker's live pictures to the pilot.
• Terminal seekers: a nose sensor takes over for the last few kilometres. An active radar (RF) seeker sends its own signal, as on Akash-NG and Astra; an imaging infrared seeker sees the target's heat picture, as on MPATGM. A missile that locks on and then needs no help is fire and forget.

Propulsion decides range and speed. A solid motor carries fuel and oxidiser mixed in one block: simple, always ready, good for road-mobile missiles such as the Agni family. A liquid motor pumps them separately: finer control, slower to prepare. A ramjet has no compressor, because speed forces the air in, so it needs a booster first; PIB calls BrahMos a two-stage missile. A scramjet burns fuel in air still flowing at supersonic speed, the heart of hypersonic cruise. Newton's third law lies behind all: the engine throws gas back, the missile goes forward. Revise it on our laws of motion and Newton's laws notes, and the ballistic arc on kinematics.

The Family Tree

Every entry is indigenous unless it says otherwise.

• Missiles of India
  • Strategic ballisticAgni tests are run under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command
    • Agni seriesAgni-1 to Agni-5, Agni-Prime · solid fuel · MIRV flight-trial 8 May 2026
    • K-series SLBMsSubmarine-launched · official ranges not published
  • Tactical surface-to-surfaceBattlefield range
    • PrithviIGMDP · short-range ballistic · liquid fuel
    • PralayQuasi-ballistic · solid propellant · flight-test 5 Nov 2026
    • BrahMosSupersonic cruise · India–Russia joint venture · land, ship, air versions
    • LRLACMLong Range Land Attack Cruise Missile · flight-test 15 Jun 2026
  • Surface-to-airLayered air defence
    • KushaLong range · maiden flight-test 23 Jul 2026
    • Akash and Akash-NGAkash from the IGMDP · Akash-NG user trials announced complete 23 Dec 2025
    • MRSAMMedium range · co-developed with Israel · built in India
    • QRSAM and VSHORADSQuick-reaction and shoulder-fired · VSHORADS flight-trials announced 27 Feb 2026
  • Air-to-air and air-to-surfaceFired from aircraft
    • AstraBeyond-visual-range air-to-air · range above 100 km (PIB)
    • RudraM-IIAir-to-surface · flight-tests announced 2 Jun 2026
  • Anti-tankArmour killers
    • NagIGMDP · fire-and-forget · Nag Mk 2 field trials Jan 2025
    • Helina and DhruvastraHelicopter-launched · Army and Air Force versions
    • MPATGMMan-portable · infrared seeker · top-attack test 11 Jan 2026
  • Anti-shipSea strike
    • BrahMosShip and air versions of the cruise missile above
    • NASM-SRHelicopter-launched · first salvo launch announced 29 Apr 2026
  • Hypersonic effortsOnly officially announced steps
    • Long-range hypersonic missileFlight-trial on 16 Nov 2024 · for ranges above 1,500 km (PIB)
    • Scramjet engineFull-scale combustor ground tests: over 12 minutes (9 Jan 2026), over 1,200 seconds (9 May 2026)

A flight-test is not an induction: PIB called the 5 November 2026 Pralay test a user evaluation trial, with induction "imminent". The strategic branch has its own page, Agni series. The K-series missiles ride on the boats described on nuclear submarines and form one leg of the triad on nuclear doctrine and the triad.

Who Operates What, and Who Controls the Nuclear Ones

The Strategic Forces Command, raised in 2003, is the tri-service command that controls delivery of nuclear weapons. PIB's Agni releases say the tests were "carried out under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command", and that is all the Government has put on record. Warhead numbers and launcher locations are not given, so this page gives none.

The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is a voluntary group of countries that agree to control exports of missiles and missile technology. India joined as its 35th member on 27 June 2016 and, like every member, commits to apply the guidelines to its own exports. Wider pacts are on defence agreements.

Guided Tour: Pages in the Missiles Section

Exam pins

Asked in past papers

Questions ask you to sort missiles into types, name one from its description or attach a figure to it.

Practice MCQs (with answers)

1. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was launched in 1983 under
   1. Dr Vikram Sarabhai
   2. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
   3. Dr Homi Bhabha
   4. Dr Satish Dhawan
2. Which IGMDP missile is a third-generation anti-tank guided missile?
   1. Prithvi
   2. Trishul
   3. Nag
   4. Akash
3. Which of these is not one of the five IGMDP missiles?
   1. Prithvi
   2. Akash
   3. Trishul
   4. BrahMos
4. A ballistic missile's engine burns mainly during the
   1. boost phase
   2. mid-course coast
   3. re-entry
   4. entire flight
5. Which guidance method needs no signal from outside the missile?
   1. GPS correction
   2. Inertial navigation
   3. Radio data link
   4. Command guidance by an operator
6. India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime in
   1. 2008
   2. 2012
   3. 2014
   4. 2016

Where to Go Next

A three-minute talk on "ballistic versus cruise missiles" makes a strong lecturette: practise with our lecturette topics for SSB, keeping to facts the Government has published. Then return to the Defence GK library for the services that fire these missiles. If the NDA is your target, Cavalier's NDA coaching batches teach the science behind this chapter with the General Ability Test, weekly tests and SSB training on our own GTO ground.