India Plans Testing
New Range Missile
India
has said it aims to test a new nuclear-capable missile with a
5000-km range.
India's chief military scientist, V.K. Saraswat said on
Wednesday, that: ’’Agni-V is out of the drawing board, and we
are aiming for a flight trial within a year.’’
Saraswat said Agni-V had a 1.5 tonne nuclear warhead
payload.
’’You can reduce the payload and (further) increase the
range,’’ he explained.
The missile would effectively bring most of China within India's
range, as well as more potential targets to the west and east
than its existing weaponry.
India recently successfully tested the Agni-III missile, which
has a 3000-km range, and is ready to bring it into the
military.
Any addition to India's military capability is viewed with
suspicion by rival Pakistan and usually touches off tit-for-tat
efforts by Islamabad.
India's announcement comes at a time when it is trying to
improve relations with Pakistan and has sought to restart a
dialogue it broke off blaming the 2008 Mumbai attack on
Pakistani-based militants.
Relations between India and Pakistan have a direct bearing on
international efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, where the two
countries have long fought a proxy battle for influence.
The U.S. remains wary of any spike in tensions between the South
Asian rivals because that could give Islamabad an excuse to cite
a threat from India on its eastern border, and divert focus from
fighting the Taliban on its western border.
Last week, Indian and Pakistani officials met in New Delhi to
decide the agenda for high-level bilateral talks India has
proposed be held later this month.
NAN/Yinka
