Posted on 07/04/2004 1:38:41 PM PDT by xzins
India tests missile days after nuclear talks AFP BHUBANESHWAR, India – India yesterday tested a short range variant of its nuclear capable surface-to-surface Agni missile from a testing site off the country’s east coast, a defence official said.
The homegrown missile, with a strike range of 700 kilometres, was tested from a mobile launcher at Wheeler Island off the coast of eastern Orissa state, the official said.
The missile, one of the variants of the Agni (Fire) series, can carry a one-tonne payload.
Defence Ministry spokesman Amitabh Chakravarty in New Delhi described the test as “a perfect launch”.
The test comes within weeks of talks between India and Pakistan on reducing the risk of nuclear confrontation.
In talks held in June, both sides agreed to set up a hotline to prevent nuclear confrontation, to continue a ban on nuclear tests and to conclude an agreement on informing each other in advance about missile tests.
It also comes just days after media reports in Pakistan quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying that Islamabad would conduct an “important” missile test in two months’ time.
Musharraf said domestic critics who believed Pakistan had decided to roll back its nuclear and missile programmes were living in a “fool’s paradise”, the Dawn newspaper said Thursday.
neither side can resist returning to brinkmanship immediately after any talks ... I expect Pakistan will have another "test" within a few weeks, ostensibly part of a regular schedule ...
wasn't it Blofeld in the James Bond classic "Diamonds Are Forever" who criticized the world's powers as "flexing their muscles like so many impotent beach boys"? ... trouble is, the warheads that these missile would launch are terribly potent ...
I think they have had varying ranges ... they just "test" them all to send a message ... on both sides ...
Well the missile tested,Agni-1 is a short range variant of the Agni IRBM which is primarily meant for CHINA.The 700km range enables massive flexibility against the Paks while also making available a tactical strike capability against Chinese airbases in Tibet&a little beyond.The standard missile meant for Pakistan before this variant came online was the Prithvi SSM which had ranges of 150&250 kms-which could cover most of areas of Pakiland but would have to deployed at vulnerable border areas&almost of no use against the Chinese.There have been persistent reports in the Indian press that India would test a variant of the Agni,which can theoritically hit Beijing(so around 3000-3500kms) this year.
3000-3500 km would be a major escalation.
If India were to develop and ICBM should the USA trust them as a "democracy," or should we recognize an international message being sent?
Err-India would need a missile with a range of round bout 8,000-10,000kms to have a decent chance of reaching the continental US-I hope u read my full post-such a weapon is meant for CHINA &China(hope u are aware that most of Pakistan's "painted" missiles&nukes are of Chinese descent&oh they did thrash us in 1962) alone.I must add India(along with Japan&Israel) does have the technology(from its space programme) to develop an ICBM within a relatively short period of time.
Bout "trusting" India as a democracy-well shouldn't India have a right to defend herself(or is America going to come to her aid)-or are all democracies identified by what weapons they produce.Granted Indian governments were rather snooty in their ties with the US but never ever have the Indian public(or governments for that matter) been downright hostile&that is what counts in a democracy.Anyway we don't have the credentials that alltime US "allies" like Saudi Arabia,Pakistan&Egypt.
&Honestly speaking-the US has enough &more nukes to finish off the rest of the world-what if i see it as an real escalation-I don't coz I don't ever see the US &India going to war in the forseeable future.The only message being sent is to a few "friends" to show that the present Indian government means business(everyone does these stunts including the US)
I'm as patriotic bout my country as you folks-but one should not lose sight of objectivity.
Surya At least one source has reported that a 12,000-km range, 80,000-kg weight ballistic missile, designated Surya, is also under development, but no confirmatory reports of such activity have as yet been discovered. (1) The status of the Surya [Sun] ICBM program is extremely unclear, with some report indicating that the development of this system was initiated in 1994. Conflicting reports regarding the Surya's configuration claim that it will be based on the components of the polar space launch vehicle (PSLV) and the Agni IRBM, and that it will have a range between 8000 and 12,000 kms. (2) Sources and Resources 1. The Nonproliferation Review, Winter 95, p. 160. 2 Chapter 4 From India to North Africa: Sowing A Missile Crop Exploring U.S. Missile Defense Requirements in 2010: What Are the Policy and Technology Challenges? Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis April 1997
WASHINGTON: The United States, which tried its darnedest to stymie India's progress towards achieving cutting edge space capability after giving its space programme an initial boost, Wednesday acknowledged the country's technical virtuosity evident in the successful launch of its top-end GSLV. "It is an indication I guess that India has a great deal of technical prowess," one US official said on background. "Very few countries in the world have such technical capability." Amen, Indian scientists might say, and for good reason. The Indian space programme began in the 1960s in a run down church in Thumba, Kerala, where with the help of American scientists, Indian space cadets knocked together the first rockets in a cowshed that served as a lab and a bishop's lair that served as an office. But after more than two decades of cooperation that even endured India's 1974 nuclear test, Washington began to put the squeeze on India in the early 1990s, suddenly becoming conscious that the country"s defence establishment could ride on the many dual-use civilian space technologies. The crunch came when the Clinton administration began to lean on Russia to stop the sale and technology transfer of cryogenic engines that would have helped India made a generational leap from its PSLV - which helps put modest-sized satellites into a orbit close to earth - to a GSLV. The GSLV can carry satellites weighing more than a ton and place it in a geosynchronous orbit - which means it goes round the Earth at the same rate as the planet turns, so the satellite is always over the same point on the Earth's surface. To do so the satellite needs to reach a very high orbit of 36,000km from the Earth, which will literally and metaphorically, be the high point of this launch. Thanks to US cussedness, the GSLV launch set for 1997 was delayed by four years. Meanwhile, under a renegotiated contract, Russia sold India seven cryogenic engines without the tech transfer, forcing Indian scientists to work on designing their own engines, a mission that is still underway. Still, Wednesday"s GSLV launch sent a murmur of excitement through the American commercial and military space establishments. "This is huge, this is a big deal," Jim Banke, a senior producer for space.com who has covered launches at Cape Canaveral for 15 years said. "This puts India into the big league. Imagine someone introducing a new car into the US market. Imagine how GM and Ford will react. This is going to send shock wave through the aerospace industry." The initial reading is the successful GSLV launch gives India the capability and the confidence to eventually enter the commercial satellite launch market that is estimated to be in the range of $10 to $20 billion annually. Currently only the United States, European Union, Russia, China, and Japan have the capability. The EU space agency Ariane commands nearly half the market, followed by the US, Russia, and China.
The US scientific community also appeared pretty sanguine about the potential military implications of the GSLV success. Although Space.com's Banke said the GSLV clearly signalled that India had achieved a ICBM capability, John Pike, a security expert formerly with the Federation of American Scientists and now Director of Global Security.org, said that capability has already been demonstrated with the PSLV. "The only difference between India's satellite launch vehicles and a ballistic missile is a coat of paint," Pike said. "The only difference between a launch vehicle and a missile is the payload. The payload can be a satellite. Or it can be a nuclear bomb," agreed Banke.
But the US officialdom, which tried to scuttle the transfer of cryogenic engine technology to India to cap such capability, maintained a studied official silence on the development. In fact, against the backdrop of the latest launch, the Indian space and nuclear establishment is having one of its rare contacts with the US scientific dispensation next week. The top minds of the Indian scientific and security apparatus including Dr Raja Ramanna and Prof U R Rao will be here for a dialogue with the United States Centre for International Security and Arms Control.
As sukhoi points out, every state has the right to develop anything it wants for reasons of self-interest.
However, every other state has the "right" to stymie that progress for reasons of self-interest.
In the world of war, why permit another possible competitor on the street if you can prevent it? France/friendly -- "maybe" in the late 1700's.
Looking at the movement of things now India could be a partial competitor to the US in about 40-50 years(if everything else goes to plan)!!!!!!!!!.Well the US may see fit to stymie any nation's military progress but remember ur also giving a lot of very "friendly" regimes breathing space when u do that to some nations (read Taiwan,Japan,India).My point is countries like India &Israel are democracies which have never been anti-American-we have far more pressing issues on hand rather than to bash Bush&co like terrorism,2 really benevolent neighbours,poverty&a truckload of other problems which the people want to see fought-If India fanatically wanted ICBMS&thermonukes she could have had one in service by the 1990s given that its nuclear weapons programme was started in 1963(by Nehru after the 62 war)&its first test in '74.
Bout ur concerns on France-i think the real issue has never been French ambitions-id rather look at it as Europe trying to emerge as global force with France,Germany(&now Spain) as the engines.
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