8.12.14

Agni-IV test-fired


India's dissuasive nuclear deterrence against China got a tad more credibility with the country testing the Agni-IV ballistic missile, which has a strike range of 4,000-km, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast on Tuesday . The Agni-IV was tested in “its full deliverable configuration“ by the tri-service Strategic Forces Command (SFC) in the first-such user trials, after one failed and three successful “developmental trials“ over the past four years. The operational induction of the missile, which was tested for a range of only 3,000 km on Tuesday , will take another couple of years. DRDO scientists said there were no glitches during the missile's entire parabolic flight path, which was constantly monitored by long-range radars and electrooptical systems all along the coast, till its splash point in the Bay of Bengal.
More fireworks are shortly expected over the Indian Ocean with the DRDO gearing up for the third developmental test of the 5,000-km Agni-V , the country's first true intercontinental ballistic missile, in a month or so. The three-stage Agni-V is likely to be inducted by 2017. The SFC has already inducted the short and intermediate range Prithvi and Agni missiles geared towards Pakistan, which has overtaken India both in terms of missiles and nuclear warheads with covert help from China and North Korea over the years.
The road-mobile Agni-IV and Agni-V , in turn, are specifically meant for deterrence against China, which can target any Indian city with its formidable inventory of missiles. Importantly , the Agni-V is now slated to be tested in its canister version, which will give the armed forces the operational flexibility to rapidly transport and fire it from anywhere they want.
“With Prithvi and Agni-I, II, III missiles already in the arsenal, Agni-IV enhances India's reach and effective deterrence capability . Agni-IV is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics, 5th generation on-board computer and distributed architecture,“ said the DRDO. Scientists are developing “manoeuvering warheads or intelligent re-entry vehicles“ to defeat enemy missile defence systems as well as MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) for the Agni series. A single missile with a MIRV payload can deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets.

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