March 31, 2012
India will test its new,
nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-5, with the capability to hit targets
beyond 5,000 km in the middle of April, Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) director general Dr VK Saraswat said here Saturday.
With this test, India will join a select, exclusive group of nations
comprising US, Russia and China that have such an inter-continental ballistic
missile capability.
"The Agni-5 will be tested
sometime in the middle of April. The exact date has not been fixed," Saraswat told a press
conference at DefExpo-2012 in Delhi.
Agni-5 will be close to the American Inter-Continental Ballistic
Missiles (ICBM), he said to a question.
India had in November 2011 tested
the 3,500-km-range Agni-4 missile. Saraswat had said then that the Agni-4
technology will help it take the leap to hit targets 5,000 km away.
India will take another three
more years to get Agni-V tested completely before inducting it into the armed
forces.
The Agni-5 range is just 500 km short of an ICBM, but China has a
11,000-km-range ICBM in its arsenal that can reach any part of India.
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