NEW DELHI: India on Monday successfully test-fired an Agni-5 missile, which has the capability to deploy multiple warheads and can has a range of 5,000 km, effectively bringing the northernmost part of China within striking distance.
With this test, dubbed Mission Divyastra, India joined a select club comprising the US, the UK, Russia, France and China that have the capacity to deploy multiple warheads. Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, “Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) technology.”
MIRV technology makes a missile capable of carrying and delivering multiple warheads at one or multiple targets. A traditional missile carries a single warhead. Designed and developed by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), the Agni-5 missile is a canister-launched system transported by truck.
The Agni-5 is an intercontinental surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes and weighs around 50 tonnes. The maximum range of the earlier Agni series was 3,500 km. Last year, India carried out the maiden flight trial of an endo-atmospheric interceptor missile from a ship off Odisha.