Agni V, the surface-to surface nuclear missile that is expected to give more teeth to India's deterrence programme, is likely to be test-fired for the first time in the last week of March or the first week of April from the Wheeler Island, off the coast of Odisha.
Disclosing this here on Monday, V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and Head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said the DRDO would conduct more test flights of the missile over the next one year. “This is a programme that is going on for the past two years. Another one year of testing will be involved [for fully developing the missile].”
Countries across the world have been keenly watching India's progress in developing this missile, which will have a range of 5,000 km and is capable of carrying a one-tonne nuclear war head. Weighing 50 tonnes, the 17.2-metre-long missile, with a diameter of two metres, will have three stages, all fired by solid fuel.
