India joins Nuclear Elite Club after firing Agni – V

Agni 5 MissileIndia today created history with the successful testing of the much awaited Agni-V long-range ballistic nuclear-capable missile, described as ‘China killer’, that can accurately hit targets more than 5,000 km away.
Agni-V was tested by DRDO from Wheelers’ Island off Odisha at 8.07 a.m. Thursday, and it accurately hit the target about 5,000-km away, thereby helping India storm into an exclusive club of nations such as US, Russia and China that have this capability.

“It was a fantastic launch. It hit the target with high accuracy,” S.P. Dash, the director of the test range, told IANS.

“India is today a nation with proven capability to design, develop and produce a long-range ballistic missile. India is a missile power now. The three-stage Agni-V missile’s entire performance has been successfully demonstrated. All mission objectives and operational targets have been met,” a jubilant Saraswat said.

Agni-V is about 2,500 km short of being called an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), as the world recognised range for an ICBM is over 7,500 km.

It will go through a series more tests before it is inducted into the armed forces by the end of 2014. But this missile provides India the capability to hit targets deep inside China and the entire Pakistan territory.

“Today’s (Thursday’s) successful Agni-V test launch represents another milestone in our quest to add to the credibility of our security and preparedness and to continuously explore the frontiers of science. The nation stands together in honouring the scientific community,” Sarashwat said.

However, India maintains a ‘no-first-strike’ nuclear weapons policy and Agni-V and the 3,500-km-range Agni-IV missile, which was successfully tested in November 2011, are deterrents against a nuclear attack from its enemies.

China, in India’s neighbourhood, has the 11,500 km range Deng Fong-31A inter-continental ballistic missile in its arsenal that can hit targets all over South Asia.

DRDO has wanted to test Agni-V Wednesday, but had to postpone the launch due to bad weather and lightning in the area of the test, and for safety reasons. It had a test window till Friday.

But the scientists did not have to wait that long and the missile, which was prepared over 15 days for the test, was brought to the launch site Thursday morning, DRDO officials said.

Interestingly, the Agni-V programme has a woman missile scientist, Tessy Thomas, as the number two in the project under director Avinash Chander. Thomas had led the Agni-IV missile programme.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed India’s successful Agni-V long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile test as “another milestone” in the country’s “quest for security, preparedness and to explore the frontiers of science”.

The Prime Minister’s Office also tweeted that Manmohan Singh spoke to Saraswat personally to congratulate him and his team for the successful test.