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India Successfully Test Fires Nuclear Capable Missile Agni-V

It is India's longest range missile.
Handout . / Reuters

India on Monday morning successfully test fired its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, the Agni-V, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.

It was reported earlier this month that the test fire will take place either at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2017.

Right after the launch, the President of India congratulated the DRDO saying:

Unlike other missiles of Agni series, Agni-V is the most advanced having some new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.

The indigenously-developed surface-to-surface missile, Agni-V, is capable of striking a target more than 5,000 km. Reports suggest the the missile is capable of reaching as far as Beijing in China.

It is about 17-metre long, two-metre wide and has launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne.

It is the fourth developmental and second canisterised trial of the nuclear capable missile.

While the first test was conducted on April 19, 2012, the second test was carried out on September 15, 2013, and the third on January 31, 2015 from the same base.

Earlier this month The Times of India quoted a source as saying, "There were some minor technical snags in Agni-V, which required tweaking of its internal battery and electronic configurations after its last test in January 2015."

There are other Agni missile that are already inducted in the armed forces and can reach Pakistan and western parts of China. It has a three-stage missile designed to carry an over one-tonne warhead. The Agni-V is the most advanced version of the indigenously built Agni missiles.

(With ANI inputs)

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