What is India’s K missile family?

Team Udayavani, Oct 5, 2020, 2:20 PM IST

India on Saturday successfully test-fired indigenously developed hypersonic nuclear-capable Shaurya missile, an advanced version of Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) K-15 (B-05).

The test was carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from a defence facility off Odisha coast

Also, It is capable of carrying a payload of up to one tonne, the missile is a land variant of K-15 SLBM (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile)  and can be stored in a composite canister/ The missile is less vulnerable to anti-ballistic missile defence systems due to its high manoeuvrability

The K missile family

The K family of missiles is a series of submarine launched ballistic missiles which is named after Indian scientist and former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. These “K” missiles are faster, lighter and stealthier than their Agni series counterparts. It is developed to boost India’s second strike capabilities and augment its nuclear deterrence.

The K-series missile programme formally began in 2004 as the PJ-08 as a tribute to its mentor, the then DRDO chief Kalam.

According to Indian Express, While K family are primarily submarine-fired missiles to be fired from India’s Arihant class nuclear powered platforms, the land and air variants of some of its members have also been developed by the DRDO.

The report further states that in the third week of January this year, DRDO conducted two successful tests of the K-4 missile from submerged platforms off the coast of Andhra Pradesh in a span of six days. These tests were a key step towards ultimately deploying K-4 on INS Arihant, which already has K-15 onboard.