Meet ‘Divya Putri’, Scientist Behind Agni-5 Missile With Multiple Warheads

India successfully tested the Agni-5 missile with multiple warheads yesterday and the massive feat was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who called it ‘Mission Divyastra’. The project was led by a woman scientist from the country’s missile complex in Hyderabad, Sheena Rani, who has been working on the Agni missile systems since 1999.

The Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology is being termed by many as the crowning glory for the  twenty-fifth year of Ms Rani – India’s latest shero and now ‘Divya Putri’ – at India’s defence research agency.

“I am a proud member of the DRDO fraternity that helps protect India,” she asserts.

She follows in the illustrious footsteps of India’s legendary missile technologist ‘Agni Putri’ Tessy Thomas, who played a key role in the development of the Agni series of missiles.

Known as a ‘powerhouse of energy’, the 57-year-old is a scientist at the Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in Hyderabad.

A trained electronics and communications engineer with expertise in computer science Sheena Rani studied at the College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram. She worked for eight years at India’s foremost civilian rocketry lab, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC).

Post the Pokhran Nuclear test of 1998, she moved to the DRDO as a lateral entry.

Since 1999, Ms Rani has been working on the launch control systems for the entire Agni series of missiles.

She draws inspiration and motivation from India’s ‘Missile Man’ former President of India and former head of the DRDO, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Interestingly, she mirrors Dr Kalam’s career path, since he also started his career at the ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and then moved to the DRDO to lead the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.

Another person who has helped her shape her career, she says, is Dr Avinash Chander, the missile technologist who led DRDO through some difficult years. Dr Chander described Sheena Rani as “always smiling, willing to innovate and her dedication to the Agni missile program is spectacular, yesterday’s launch was a crowning glory for her”.

Her husband, PSRS Sastry, also worked with the DRDO on missiles and was also in-charge of the Kautilya Satellite launched by ISRO in 2019 and used for gathering electronic intelligence.

The DRDO confirmed it conducted the first successful flight test of the indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle ( MIRV) technology. The flight test named ‘Mission Divyastra’ was carried out from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha. Various Telemetry and radar stations tracked and monitored multiple re-entry vehicles. The mission accomplished the designed parameters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the efforts of the DRDO scientists who participated in the conduct of the complex Mission. In a post on social media platform X, he said, “Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.”

The missile is a game changer for regional geopolitics and a force multiplier and made with state-of-the-art, complex indigenous technology. The team is right now full of pride after having met all the intended objectives.

The new weapon system made by the DRDO has MIRV technology, which ensures that a single missile can deploy multiple war heads and hit targets at different locations simultaneously. It can help evade enemy anti-ballistic missile system capabilities.

With this, India has joined the select club of nations – US, UK, Russia, France and China – that have the MIRV technology. India is the sixth country to have MIRV-capable missiles.

An MIRV payload involves a single missile carrying several nuclear warheads, each programmed to hit a separate target. This means the optimum use of a single missile and gives India the capability of targeting adversaries in the east and west within a 5,000-plus km radius.

To make this effective, the system is also equipped with indigenous avionics systems and high-accuracy sensor packages, which ensure that the re-entry vehicles accurately reach the target points, sources said.