India has officially become part of the exclusive group of nations with technology for ballistic rockets that are fired from trains. The successful test of the Agni-Prime rocket, conducted September 24 from a modified train car, marks a significant strategic advance to the country’s defense.
The rocket was developed by the DRDO agency in collaboration with the strategic command system and was evaluated in a “fully operational scenario”, which increases the credibility of India’s nuclear deterrence.
The main advantage of the train system is survival. By using the country’s extensive railway networks, which extend over more than 60,000 kilometers and contain countless tunnels, the rockets can be easily moved and hidden, making them extremely difficult to track and destroy by an opponent.
Agni-Prime, with a range of up to 2,000 km, can reach the entire Pakistan and strategic goals in southwestern China, two neighbors with which India has ongoing geopolitical tensions and territorial disputes.
This development is in a context with increasing modernization of the Chinese armed forces and regional tensions. The initiative puts India at the same level as countries as China, which also develops a similar system, and North Korea, which has already conducted such tests.
Railway mobility offers a relatively cheap and very effective way to protect nuclear resources, and changes the strategic calculations and balance of power in South Asia.
Source: The War Zone | Photo: x @drdo_india | The content was created using AI and reviewed by the editorial team
Intermediate Range Agni-Prime Missile was successfully tested on 24 Sep 2025 from a Rail based Mobile launcher. This will be a force multiplier to strategic forces, with a game changer road cum rail missile system pic.twitter.com/bEmDQoHNUf
— DRDO (@DRDO_India) September 25, 2025
