India tests nuclear-capable missile Agni-V off Odisha coast.

The weapon has a range of more than 5,000 kilometres.

India on Sunday test-fired surface-to-surface nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile Agni-V from Abdul Kalam island off the coast of Odisha, ANI reported. The test was conducted at 9.48 am from the Integrated Test Range.

It is about 17 metres long, 2 metres wide and can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne upto a distance of more than 5,000 km.

India currently has the Agni-I (700-km range), Agni-II (2,000-km range), Agni-III and Agni-IV (over 3,500-km range), and the supersonic Brahmos. Agni-V is claimed to be the most advanced in technology in terms of navigation, guidance, warhead and engine. The Defence Research and Development Organisation is reportedly in the process of building Agni-VI, which will have a strike range of 8,000-10,000 km.

The Agni-V missile, which was first launched on April 19, 2012, has since undergone four more launches, all successful

With the country’s longest-range ballistic missile, the Agni-V, successfully tested on Sunday, India is now within one year of possessing a usable nuclear deterrent that can strike any target in China. Only one more “pre-induction test-flight” is needed before the Agni-V starts becoming operationalised in the Strategic Forces Command (SFC).

This is the tri-service agency that holds — and in the worst case, fires — India’s nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.