How Agni-V hit China hard even before its launch
India on Monday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-V from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast in Balasore district. Described as a huge success by officials of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which designed and developed the missile, here's why everyone's closely watching the flight of Agni-V.
1. One of the most-advanced missiles, Agni-V is capable of striking a target more than 5,000km away while the range of the missile can cover most parts of China and Europe.
2. An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Agni-V, is about 17-metre long, 2-metre wide and has a launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne and is able to travel faster than a bullet.
3. Once inducted into the Indian military, India will join the elite club of countries with ICBMs alongside the US, Russia, China, France and Britain.
4. Interestingly, the missile can be launched only on the orders of the prime minister.
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| China claims that India has deliberately downplayed Agni-V's capability. (Credit: PTI) |
5. It was earlier reported that Agni-V will be equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) as well, making it capable of hitting several enemy targets with multiple warheads on a single missile. This is something that has raised alarm over possible arms race in the region.
6. With its first successful test, Agni-V managed to rattle China, which claimed that India has deliberately downplayed the missile's capability. While India maintained the missile can cover more than 5,000km, China felt the missile has the potential to reach targets 8,000km away.
The state-run Global Times had derided the missile saying that Chinese nuclear power is stronger and more reliable and India had no chance to catch up.
7. Although the missile by now has become more of a political weapon than a war armament, India, with its “no-first use” (NFU) doctrine, claims it is unlikely to let any addition to its nuclear inventory impact the regional stability, and they are only deterrents against a nuclear attack from its enemies.
The BJP-led government, which came to power in 2014, also maintains that the NFU policy is here to stay and that the doctrine grants a “certain amount of leverage in foreign-policy matters".
Despite all that, Agni-V has rasied serious concerns over a spillover effect on Pakistan, which might use it as an excuse to enhance its nuclear capability further.
8. This was the fourth and final test of the missile — it was first tested in April 2012 and again in September 2013 and in 2015, but the DRDO had announced a glitch in the missile technology earlier this year.
"In 2015, there were some minor technical snags in Agni-V, which required tweaking of its internal battery and electronic configurations after its last test in January 2015," the IANS quoted an unnamed source as saying on Monday.
Apart from Agni-V, India is equipped with Agni-I which covers a range of 700km, Agni-II which covers a range of 2,000km, Agni-III which covers a range of 2,500km and Agni-IV which covers a range of over 3,500km.