— Ministry of Defence, Government of India (@SpokespersonMoD) September 25, 2025
INDIA: An intermediate-range ballistic missile has been successfully test launched from a rail-based mobile launcher system under a ‘full operational scenario’, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The MoD said the successful trial carried out by the Defences Research & Development Organisation and Strategic Forces Command on September 24 would enable the ‘futuristic’ rail-based launch system to enter service.
DRDO said ‘this will be a force multiplier to strategic forces’.
Rail-based mobile launcher
A road-mobile launcher for the 2 000 km range Agni-Prime nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile had already been developed.
The rail-based mobile launcher has the capability to move on the rail network ‘without any pre-conditions’, providing cross-country mobility with the ability to launch within a short reaction time and with reduced visibility. The launcher is self-sustained and equipped to have an independent launch capability, with ‘state-of-the-art’ communication systems and protection mechanisms.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the test has put India in a ‘select’ group of countries which have developed canisterised launch systems for rail networks.
Railway-launched missiles
In 2021 a North Korean railway missile regiment conducted a test launch to confirm the practicality of firing a missile from a train at a target 800 km away, and to assess the combat readiness and capability of the newly-formed unit.
The Soviet Union also developed rail-launched nuclear missiles in the 1980s, with a train now preserved at the St Petersburg railway museum, and a US system was under development but cancelled at the end of the Cold War.
