Why china worries about India's AGNI-5 ICBM ballistic nuclear missile

India is likely to enter the elite club of nations with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capability as the over 5,000 km range Agni-5 missile was expected to become a reality by next year.

"Work is progressing satisfactorily in the development of Agni-5, which is expected to become a reality next year. With this, DRDO would have given India a comprehensive indigenous strategic capability, available with only a few nations of the world," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said at the National Technology Day awards function here.

Agni-5 will be the first canistered ballistic missile with range of over 5,000 km into Indian inventory, bringing possible military targets in the whole of China and Pakistan within striking range. The missile is likely to be tested early next year.

Missiles which are capable of being launched from canisters can be fired from multiple platforms and are easily transportable.

Commenting on the Indian missile programme, Saraswat said, "the success of Agni-3 and other tests have confirmed India's strategic deterrence capability, which could not have been possible without the preceding developmental efforts in these programmes."


As earlier reported by TOI, the solid-fuelled Agni-V, for which the government has sanctioned around Rs 2,500 crore, will be a canister-launch missile system to ensure it has the requisite operational flexibility to be fired from any part of the country.

The ongoing work on Agni-V basically revolves around incorporating a third composite stage in the two-stage 16.7-metre tall Agni-III, along with some advanced technologies like ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance.

Though slightly short of true ICBMs, which have ranges in excess of 5,500 km, Agni-Vs will come in special storage-cum-launch canisters, making it much easier to store them for long periods without maintenance as well as to handle and transport.

So, conceivably, Agni-V will be capable of being swiftly moved closer to the border with China to substantially enhance its strike range into the country. What has exercised China is the fact this will bring even its northern-most city, Habin, within the missile's strike envelope.

Moreover, DRDO is also developing MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads for the Agni missiles. An MIRV payload basically is a bunch of several nuclear warheads carried on a single missile, which can be programmed to hit different targets separated from each other. Given this, even ballistic missile defence systems can be overwhelmed by MIRVs.

This fits in with India's nuclear doctrine, which holds that even though there will be no first-use, ``nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage.