India to test 5,000 km range Agni-V in a year: DRDO
11 Feb 2010
With the Agni-III intermediate range ballistic missile scoring a hat trick of successes and now cleared for induction, a buoyed up DRDO, India's premier defence research organisation, is lining up tests of the Agni-V, an inter-continental ballistic missile.
Agni-III test firing |
"Agni-V is a 5,000 km plus missile in the ICBM category and we are planning to carry out its first test within a year," Dr VK Saraswat, director general of DRDO, and also scientific advisor to the defence minister, told reporters here.
The Agni-V will leave no targets immune from an Indian strike in China. Pakistani targets are already covered adequately by the Agni-I and II missiles.
"After Agni-III and Agni-V, as far as cities in China and Pakistan are concerned, there will be no target that we want to hit but can't hit," Dr Saraswat said.
Commenting on the Agni-V, the DRDO chief said the "missile was already out of the drawing boards." According to Dr Saraswat, the Agni-V was currently undergoing technical evaluations of its sub-systems.