The Times of India on Mobile
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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
deepin
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.