Agni-V test fired successfully; India enters elite ICBM club

NEW DELHI: India has successfully tested an indigenous long-range missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and brings within striking distance targets as far as Shanghai, invoking pride within the country while rattling the state-controlled Chinese media.
Literally meaning fire, Agni-V, the surface-to-surface missile launched from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast at 8:07 am on Thursday propelled India into the small group of nations that possess intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Agni-V is expected to significantly add to India's firepower and enhance its deterrent capability because none of its earlier missiles has the range to cover China.

The 17.5 metre-tall and two metre-wide missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne, rose to a height of 600 km before hitting its target more than 5,000 km away in the Indian ocean, reports said.

"We had a successful launch of Agni-V," said VK Saraswat, chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which developed the missile. "This launch has given a message to the entire world that India has the capability to design, develop, build and manufacture missiles of this class, and we are today a missile power."

The DRDO will conduct two more validation tests before starting the production of this missile, Saraswat said.

A senior DRDO scientist said Agni-V will be ready for induction into the armed forces by 2014. The launch, earlier scheduled for the previous evening, had to be put off due to bad weather.

"Today, we have done a great event for the country," said Tessy Thomas, DRDO's chief scientist on the project. "All the team work that has gone in for the last three years has given a fruitful result."

India has joined the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, which already possess such missiles. China, for example, is believed to have sophisticated missiles with a range of more than 13,000 km.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry, Liu Weimin, reacted cautiously to the test launch of Agni-V, saying, "China and India are large developing nations. We are not competitors but partners."

Beijing-based newspaper Global Times, published by the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party People's Daily, however, noted in its editorial, "India should not overestimate its strength.

Even if it has missiles that could reach most parts of China, that does not mean it will gain anything from being arrogant during disputes with China.

India should be clear that China's nuclear power is stronger and more reliable. For the foreseeable future, India would stand no chance in an overall arms race with China."

The United States Department of State's spokesperson Mark Toner, on the other hand, pointed out that "India has a solid non-proliferation record", even as he said, "We urge all nuclear-capable states to exercise restraint regarding nuclear capabilities."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the successful launch represented another milestone in India's "quest to add to the credibility of our security and preparedness and to continuously explore the frontiers of science".

Defence Minister AK Antony described the test as an "immaculate success" and a "major milestone".

"The nation stands tall today," Antony told Saraswat on phone, "We have joined the elite club of nations (to possess the ICBM capability)."

India had been preparing vigorously for the launch ever since it successfully tested last November Agni IV, which has a strike range of more than 3,500 km.