Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Bolstering India’s policy of ‘credible minimum deterrence’, it successfully fired the Agni-V missile on Wednesday.
“A successful launch of the Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni-5, was carried out on October 27, 2021 at approximately 1950 hrs from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. The missile, which uses a three-stage solid fuelled engine, is capable of striking targets at ranges up to 5,000 kilometres with a very high degree of accuracy,” said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a statement.
The successful test of the missile is in line with India’s stated policy to have ‘credible minimum deterrence’. Designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Agni-V missile is a canister-launched system that is transported by truck. With its range, the Agni V would be helpful in striking against the Chinese.
Broadly falling into the category of the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile category, it can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes and weighs around 50 tonnes. India is the eighth country to have intercontinental ballistic missiles after the US, UK, Russia, China, France, Israel and North Korea.
Agni series of missiles include from 1 to 5 and Agni -V, the most advanced of them was first tested in 2012. At present, in addition to the Agni-5, other Agni missiles that India has are: Agni-1 with a 700-km range, Agni-2 with a 2,000-km range, Agni-3 and Agni-4 with 2,500 km to more than 3,500 km range.