Nuclear-Capable Agni-Iv Test-Fired Successfully, Has China In Sight

[Spartan]

NEW DELHI: India's dissuasive nuclear deterrence against China got a tad more credibility on Tuesday with the country testing the Agni-IV ballistic missile, which has a strike range of 4,000km, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast in the morning.

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 last four years.

The actual operational induction of the missile, which was tested for a range of only 3,000km 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 electro-optical 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 now gearing up for the third developmental test of the over 5,000-km Agni-V, the country's first true intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in a month or so. The three-stage Agni-V is likely to be inducted by 2017

[Spartan]

[ravula]

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