Missiles have always been known as the game changer on any war field, and the back bone of the defense system of any country. India has a wonderful history of missiles.
Do you know the name of the first country to use missiles in wars? It was India, fighting in the British Colonial Army. Tipu Sultan’s army used thousands of rockets, popularly known as Mysorean Rockets, in the Srirangapatna war in 1792, resulting in the defeat of the British troops.
India had mastered missile technology even as far back as then, but got left behind in this field when Britishers ruled the country for hundreds of years, resulting in a lack of resources, research environment and capabilities for us.
After Independence when India face a great setback to Nehru’s Foreign policy and faced a war from China in 1962, and again from Pakistan in 1965, we faced a heavy loss of life and land.
This was the time when India decided to go ahead with its missile program and launched Project Devil (1970s) and Project Valiant under the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).
The goal of the projects was to develop a short range surface to air snd intercontinental ballistic missile by reverse engineering the Russian built SA-2. Although India could not achieve anything from this project but with a strong determination and positive attitude, Indian scientists launched their third project, popularly known as IGMDP (Integrated Guided Missile Development Program) in 1982 under the leadership of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, whose aim was to develop five different kind of missiles which included the Strategic Agni Integrated Range Ballistic missile, the tactical Prithvi, the Akash &Trishul Surface to Air missiles, and the Nag Anti-Tank missile.
The project gave India the capability to produce indigenous missiles in other key areas as well. In the journey of Indian missiles, western nations tried many a time to impose their dominance by enforcing pacts like The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to control the access and availability of advance weapon systems to India. Still, after a lot of ups and downs, Indian scientists created history by carrying out nuclear tests in May,1998 and becoming a nuclear weapon state.
Today India is one of the few countries in the world to have an indigenously developed Missile System.
