India tests long-range ballistic missile
Launch of Agni V, with range of 5,000km and ability to carry
nuclear warheads, puts country into elite club of nations.
Last Modified:
19 Apr 2012 16:30
India has test launched its first long-range intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM), capable of reaching deep into China and as far as
Europe, with a scientist at the launch describing the mission
as successful.
"It has met all the mission objectives," SP Dash, director of the test
range, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. "It hit the target with
very good accuracy."
It took the missile about 20 minutes to reach its target somewhere near
Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.
The launch of the Agni V, which can carry nuclear warheads and has a
range of 5,000km, thrusts the country into an elite club of nations with
intercontinental nuclear capabilities.
Only the UN Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia,
the US and Britain - along with Israel, have such long-range weapons.
"The successful launch of Agni V missile is a tribute to the
sophistications and commitment to national causes on the part of India's
scientific technological community," Manmohan Singh, India's prime
minister, said.
Singh said he hoped Indian scientists and technologists would in the
future contribute a "lot more to promoting self reliance in defence and
other walks of national life".
'Confidence boost'
Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri, reporting from New Delhi, said the launch was
"significant because Indian scientists have been working for years to
get the programme off the ground".
"It is the most strategic and ambitious programme this country has
undertaken in recent years," she said.
"What's important is that this missile has been completely indigenously
produced and designed. It's cost the Indian government over $500m to do
that."
Harsh Pant, a defence expert at King's College London university,
described the launch as a "confidence boost", adding that the mission
"signalled India's arrival on the global stage [and] that it deserves to
be sitting at the high table".
But Richard Bitzinger, a military specialist at Nanyang Technological
University in Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera that India would need to carry
out "several more tests" before it could declare Agni V
missile operational.
"It's not gonna happen overnight," he said.
The launch came as India nears completion of a nuclear submarine that
will increase its ability to launch a counter strike if it were
attacked. Delhi insists its nuclear weapons programme is for deterrence
only.
One of the fast emerging economies known as the BRICS - Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa - India is keen to play a larger role on
the global stage and has been clamouring for a permanent seat on the
Security Council.
It has in recent years emerged as the world's top arms importer as it
rushes to upgrade equipment for a large but outdated military.
China's
reaction
There was no immediate criticism from world powers over the launch,
which was flagged well in advance, but China noted the launch with
disapproval.
"The West chooses to overlook India's disregard of nuclear and missile
control treaties," China's
Global Times
newspaper said in an editorial published before the launch, which was
delayed by a day because of bad weather.
"India should not overestimate its strength," said the paper, which is
owned by the Chinese Communist Party's main mouthpiece the
People's Daily.
State-owned China Central Television said
the missile "does not pose a threat in reality", enumerating some of
its shortcomings, from a problem with guidance systems to its
50-ton-plus weight.
CCTV said the missile would have to be fired from fixed positions,
making it more vulnerable to attack.
Delhi has not signed the non-proliferation treaty for nuclear nations,
but enjoys a de facto legitimacy for its arsenal, boosted by a landmark
2008 deal with the US.
On Wednesday, NATO said it did not consider India a threat while the US
state department urged restraint and said India's non-proliferation
record was "solid".
India lost a brief Himalayan border war with its larger neighbour,
China, in 1962 and has since strived to improve its defences. In recent
years, the government has fretted over China's enhanced military
presence near the border.
Experts said the launch could trigger a renewed push from within India's
defence establishment to build a fully fledged intercontinental
ballistic missile programme capable of reaching the Americas.
"Policy-wise it becomes more complicated from now on, until Agni V,
India really has been able to make a case about its strategic
objectives, but as it moves into the ICBM frontier there'll be more
questions asked," said Pant.
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