India conducts first flight of missile that can carry multiple warheads
Al Jazeera
Delhi has been developing its missile systems for years now, especially as its competition with China grows.
India has completed the first flight test of a home-grown missile with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) technology, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.
It is the latest development in India’s nuclear-capable Agni missile series, named after the Sanskrit word for “fire”, and part of a project launched in 1983.
The technology delivers multiple warheads to different targets fired from the same missile on the Agni-V platform, which has a range of 5,000 km (3,100 miles), making it India’s sole contender for intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) long-range category.
Modi said on Monday that he was “proud” that the launch of “the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology”, in comments on social media platform X.
Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh said on X that India had “joined the select group of nations” capable of the missile technology.
