NEW DELHI – India on Thursday successfully test-fired nuclear-capablesurface-to-surface Agni-5 ballistic missile. The 5000-km range ballisticmissile was fired off from the Abdul Kalam island off the Odisha coast at9:53 am.
Agni-V is about 17 meters long, 2 metres wide and has a launch weight ofaround 50 tonnes. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than onetonne.
This is the fifth developmental trial of the Agni-5 long range missile. Thefirst test was conducted on 19 April 2012. Thereafter three tests were heldon 15 September 2013, January 31, 2015, and December 26, 2016. All fourprevious missions have been successful.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed the launch of the missile.”We have successfully launched nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-Vtoday,” she said soon after the launch.
The Agni missile system is an Intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)of India. It has been designed and developed in five variants – Agni-I,Agni-II, Agni-II Plus, Agni-III and Agni-V.
Agni-V is an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), a missile with along range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery. Speciallytailored for road-mobility, the missile will be able to carry multiplewarheads.
The surface to surface Agni V missile is the most advanced among the Agniseries, having new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigationand guidance, warhead and engine. The Circular Error Probable, CEP on boardmakes it one of the most accurate strategic ballistic missile of its rangeclass in the world. This is important because a highly accurate ballisticmissile increases the “kill efficiency” of the weapon.
It will allow Indian weapons designers to use smaller yield nuclearwarheads while increasing the lethality of the strike. In other words,Indian defence forces will be able to deploy a much larger nuclear forceusing less fissile material than other nuclear powers.