You see. This is the problem if you don't state sources must. You tend to really goof up.

All of India's agni series from 1 onwards are solid fuel completely and utterly. The Agni III has a mass of about 48 tonnes as you state.

You are talking about other IRBM's? The DF-4 has a mass of 82 metric tonnes for a max range of just under 5000 km. It is partially liquid fuelled however.

The American Jupiter was also liquid fuelled, weighed similar to the Agni 3 but only went about half as far.

In general liquid fuelled IRBMs have rougly half the range for the same amount of mass of fuel as the Agni III.

I assume the one particular IRBM you mention is the new chinese DF-31. According to sinodefence, this missile has a range of 8000 km and the payload varies between 1050 to 1750 kg. It has a mass launch of 42 tonnes.

Global security lists the range as 3000km - 8000km. My take on this? With the lightest payload (1050 kg or 700 kg according to global security), its range is 8000km. With a payload of about 2000 kg, its range is about 3000+ km.

Now range and payload mass curves look like this:




As you can see, with a payload of only 1000kgs, the agni can also go to nearly 8000kms. In fact the smallest warhead that can be put on it is about 600 kg according to BR, this would give it a range of above 9000km.

I would estimate that the range of the DF-31 with a 1500 kg payload would also be about 5000 km as well - similar to the Agni III.

The curve is of course an estimate at the performance of the Agni III according to its range requirements. But the basic theory still stands, you need equivalent payloads to compare missiles. There isn't some magical solid fuel that china uses that hasn't been found by india.....the 8000 km range figure is simply quoted with a much lighter payload.

Over the next couple years, we will see the agni's "range" also increase from the 5500 km it is now with 1500 kg warhead to something with 3000 km more with some modifications (has been announced already by the DRDO scientists - it is awaiting political clearance). No brownies for guessing what these "modifications" entail.
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