Tessy Thomas

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Tessy Thomas, known widely as India’s “Missile Woman,” is the Director General of Aeronautical Systems at DRDO and the first woman scientist in the country to lead a missile project. Her name is closely tied to the Agni programme, where she served as Project Director for Agni-IV and played a key mission leadership role in Agni-V, two of India’s most critical strategic missile systems.

With a doctorate in missile guidance, Thomas has worked across guidance, control, inertial navigation, trajectory simulation, and mission design. One of her most significant technical contributions was designing the guidance scheme for long-range missile systems, a framework that continues to be used across all Agni missiles. She also created an energy management guidance program for solid-fueled long-range missiles, a contribution that earned her the Agni Self-Reliance Award in 2001.

Thomas joined DRDO in the late 1980s and has been associated with the Agni programme since its early developmental flights. Over the years, she has led projects that introduced several first-of-their-kind technologies for India’s strategic systems.