Agni-V will be BEST missile of 21st century: DRDO chief

Defence Research and Development Organisation Director General Vijay Kumar Saraswat on Friday said the Agni-V missile, which took 30 years to be developed, was the best such thing in the 21st century.

Agni-V is an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the DRDO. It is part of the Agni series of missiles, one of the missile systems under the original Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

At a felicitation function at ITM University in Gwalior, Saraswat said the making of the missile had become possible because of the support and cooperation of people like former prime minister late Indira Gandhi and former scientific advisor A P J Abdul Kalam.

"Such people had great vision and this helped in the successful making of the missile," he said.

The DRDO director general said the making of the missile had given him happiness and satisfaction and induced hope that challenges of the future would be met successfully.

The missile could not have been made without the work done by young scientists who were full of self-confidence, he said.

He thanked the university for felicitating him in the city of his birth.

On the occasion, Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt said the development in the country should take place on the lines of Japan and Germany.