In a strong strategic signal to China amidst the continuing 17-month military confrontation in eastern Ladakh, India tested its most formidable missile, the over 5,000-km range Agni-V, on Wednesday evening, Times of India (TOI) reported.
The "successful test" of the Agni-V, which brings even the northernmost part of China within its strike envelope, is in line with India's stated policy to have "credible minimum deterrence that underpins the commitment to no first-use (NFU)", TOI quoted the defense ministry as saying.
India is already able to strike anywhere inside neighboring Pakistan, its arch-rival against whom it has fought three wars since gaining independence from British colonialists in 1947.
"The missile, which uses a three-stage solid fuelled engine, is capable of striking targets at ranges up to 5,000 km with a very high degree of accuracy. It was tested for its entire range. The launch went off very well," the defense ministry said adding:
On Wednesday, the missile with a 1.5-tonne warhead was launched from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off the Odisha coast, at about 7.50 pm. Flying at 24 times the speed of sound, the missile's trajectory and flight parameters were constantly monitored by radars, electro-optical tracking systems, telemetry stations and ships before it splashed down in the Bay of Bengal.
The Agni-5 "is capable of neutralizing targets threatening India's Sovereignty & Territorial Integrity," Lt. Col. Abhinav Navneet, a Defense Ministry spokesperson, tweeted.
The TOI said Agni-V was developed by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
The DRDO is also working to develop 'multiple independently
targetable re-entry vehicles' (MIRVs) for the Agni missiles but it will take at
least another two years for the multiple-warhead capability to be tested,
according to TOI. An MIRV payload
basically involves a single missile carrying four to six nuclear warheads, each
programmed to hit a separate target.
The existing single-warhead Agni-V in itself
adds teeth to the deterrence posture against China, which has missiles like the
Dong Feng-41 (12,000-15,000-km) that can hit any Indian city, the TOI said. China
has also recently gone in for a huge expansion in new missile silo fields for
launching nuclear-tipped ICBMs.
As per the latest assessment of the Stockholm
International Peace Institute (SIPRI), China now possesses 350 nuclear warheads
and Pakistan 165, as compared to 156 of India.
Analysts point out that India has conducted several tests of the Agni-5
previously, but the latest launch should be read in the context of the failure
of the Oct. 10 India-China military talks to resolve the two countries'
17-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh.
"It is a signal to Beijing that India can use [the missile] when needed," N.C. Bipindra, a New Delhi-based defense and strategic affairs expert who is editor of the news portal Defense Capital, told Nikkei Asia.
West jumps on India's launch of Agni-5 to stoke regional arms race: Global Times
On the Agni-5 launch, the Chinese Communist Party paper, Global Times Thursday published a comment written by Lan Jianxue under the title: West jumps on India's launch of Agni-5 to stoke regional arms race.
Lan Jianxue is director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at China Institute of International Studies.
He wrote, the Western media reports attempted to link the launch with the border tensions between China and India. The Times of India said the launch was "a strong strategic signal to China." Wall Street Journal described it as "a warning shot" to China.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
