India successfully testfires home-made, nuclear-capable Agni-V ballistic missile

NEW DELHI (Xinhua) - India Sunday successfully testfired its indigenous, nuclear-capable Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile from the Wheeler Island off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha, sources said.

"The missile was launched at 8:45 a.m. local time and successfully hit its designated target after 20 minutes. This was the second launch of the longest range missile since it was developed by the state-owned Defense Research Development Organisation in April 2012," the sources said.

The launch put India to the exclusive club of countries like the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain which have the technology to develop inter-continental ballistic missiles.

The surface-to-surface, three-stage, solid propellant missile has a range of 5,000 km and weighs 50 tonnes. It is 17 meters high and 2 meters wide, and can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes.

Agni-V is part of the Agni series of missiles, one of the missile systems developed under India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. It is expected to be inducted into the country's defense forces in a couple of years, after more trials.

In future, Agni-V is expected to feature Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles with each missile being capable of carrying two to ten separate nuclear warheads. Each warhead can be assigned to a different target, separated by hundreds of kilometers, or two or more warheads can be assigned to one target.