The Times of India on Mobile
this news was from 2007 for Agni4
13 Dec 2007, 0143 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: In what could
provide India greater strategic
depth, the government on
Wednesday announced its plan
to develop 6,000-km range Agni-
IV missile which will be capable
of destroying targets deep in
China.
The announcement is seen as a
move to send out strong signals
to countries in the
neighbourhood. Any missile with
a range of more than 5,000 km
stationed in south or central
India would be out of the range
of most capable missiles in
Pakistan's arsenal while it would
be able to hit targets in eastern
and northern China with cities
like Beijing and Shanghai in its
ambit.
The 3,500-km Agni-III, which was
successfully test-fired in April,
will not be able to reach cities
like Beijing unless it is deployed
in eastern states near the
Chinese border.
Top scientist V K Saraswat of
the Defence Research and
Development Organisation
(DRDO) said the Agni-IV
project was in the design
stage and its trials and
development could take a few
years.
Saraswat said the DRDO
would carry out three more
tests of Agni-III over the next
yearwith the second trial of
the missile slated by June. The
3,500-km range missile, which
has the capacity to carry a
nuclear payload of upto 1.5
tonnes, is likely to be inducted
into the forces by 2009 after
at least three successful tests.
The DRDO scientist said India
would have a complete ballistic
missile defence (BMD) system in
three years â ready and
deployed. The system will have
interceptor missiles that can hit
targets 50-km above the
atmosphere and supersonic
interceptors that can eliminate
endo-atmospheric targets 15-km
within the atmosphere.
Believed to be superior to
America's Patriot, the BMD
system has been in development
for the last eight years. As part
of the programme, the Prithvi air
defence missile was tested in
November 2006 while advanced
air defence interceptor was
tested this month.
The development of 6,000-km
Agni-IV also indicates that the
country has shelved plans to
develop Inter-Continental
Ballistic Missiles which would
have hit far away targets. There had been speculations of
India developing an ICBM
named Surya with a range of
more than 10,000-km. However,
in light of the ongoing
negotiations on Indo-US nuclear
deal, it is quite possible that
India may not like to annoy US.