India tests nuclear-capable missile(can hit Shanghai & Beijing)

India successfully carried out its first test of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometres (2,480 miles), defence officials said.

The Agni-III missile was launched on Sunday from Wheeler Island, 180 kilometres northeast of Bhubaneshwar in the eastern state of Orissa, they said on condition of anonymity.

In May Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said the Agni-III, India's longest-range ballistic missile, was ready but that the country was observing "self-imposed restraint" before testing.

Opposition parties criticised the announcement, saying testing was being delayed because of pressure from the United States. New Delhi and Washington reached a landmark deal in March that will see sanctions lifted on India's access to civilian nuclear technology.

Sunday's test launch comes just four days after North Korea sparked an international outcry by test-firing seven missiles.

A highly-placed Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) source said the Indian test was "successful".

He said scientists had detected a snag in the booster rocket system of the Agni-III two weeks ago and had delayed its test. "Now we have papered over the problem and hence the launch window was chosen as Sunday," he said.

The missile was tracked during take-off, re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, another defence official said.

The Agni (Fire) is one of five missiles being developed by the DRDO under its Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme launched in 1983. The others are the Prithvi, the surface-to-air Trishul (Trident), multi-purpose Akash (Sky), and the anti-tank Nag (Cobra).

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947, routinely notify each other of missile tests.

The two countries came to the brink of a fourth war in the summer of 2002 following a December 2001 attack on India's parliament by suspected Pakistan-backed militants. Islamabad denied any role in the attack.

But in January 2004 the two sides began a peace process that has led to a ceasefire in the divided Himalayan state of Kashmir, the cause of two of the wars.

In May 1998, India conducted five nuclear tests citing China as a security threat. The tests were matched two weeks later by Pakistan which India says has received Beijing's assistance for its nuclear programme, a claim denied by China.

But tensions between China and India have abated in the past two years including direct military talks and the reopening last week of a famed Silk Road pass in the Himalayas, the first direct border trade between the Asian giants since a brutal frontier war 44 years ago.

C. Uday Bhaskar, deputy head of the government funded Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, said India's nuclear and missile programmes should not be seen as country specific.

"Countries acquire strategic capabilities that are generic nature. Our programme is not predicated on a single point threat. It is always in relation to the international strategic environment," Bhaskar said.

Agni-III paves way for longer range ICBMs

[ Sunday, July 09, 2006 02:35:51 pm PTI ]

NEW DELHI: The test-firing of the 3500-km range Agni-III has paved the way for the country to produce intercontinental range ballistic missiles and provided it a robust second strike nuclear capability, defence scientists said on Sunday.

Unlike the Prithvi and earlier versions of the Agni surface-to-surface missiles, the launch of the Agni-III by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by using all solid fuel propellant systems signalled that India has achieved complete indigenous capability and self-reliance in this field, they said.

This, DRDO sources said, will increase accuracy and marginalise failure rates in the launch of the surface-to-surface missiles.

Agni-III supports a wide range of warheads, both conventional and nuclear, with a total payload weight of 600 kg to 1,800 kg, and features decoys and other anti-ballistic counter-measures, they said.

The missile can be deployed using rail or road mobile launch vehicles, and has an inertial guidance system with improved optical or radar terminal phase correlation capability to guide it accurately to its target.

DRDO sources said this gives the Agni-III a high degree of accuracy with a medium to large nuclear payload, most likely a 200-300 kilotonne warhead.

India test-fires long range, China-specific missile

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=108017

New Delhi (dpa) - India successfully test fired a nuclear-capable long-range ballistic missile on Sunday from a range off the country's eastern coast, defence officials said.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and a large group of scientists from India's defence research organizations were present to see the first test flight of Agni III, meaning "fire" in Hindi.

The Agni III is an indigenously-built surface-to-surface missile with a range of 3,500 kilometres. It can take a payload of up to 1,000 kilograms and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The testing of the missile had been put off twice over the past year. It was fired from a fixed platform at the launch complex of the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler's Island on Sunday, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry said.

Eyewitnesses quoted by PTI news agency said the projectile roared vertically into the overcast sky over the Bay of Bengal leaving behind a trail of thick yellow smoke and fire and vanished into the clouds within seconds. It soon re-entered to splash down at a point near Nicobar island.

Several sophisticated radars and electro-optical tracking systems placed on the mainland and a ship near the splash-down point monitored the trajectory of the missile.

Defence experts said the testing of the new missile was significant for India's nuclear minimum deterrence programme, especially with regard to China. Both China and India's western neighbour Pakistan have nuclear-capable missiles.

"The range of the missile allows it to strike targets deep in the Chinese mainland like Shanghai and Beijing and gives credibility to India's minimum deterrence programme," said Rahul Bedi, India correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly.

India and China went to war in 1962 over a border dispute but in recent years their relations have warmed with increasing economic cooperation.

"The Agni III is a vital addition to India's strategic deterrence and gives it the ability to negotiate a little more robustly on its nuclear position and stance," Bedi said.

The Agni III is the most sophisticated of the missiles developed under a long-term integrated missile development programme by India's Defence Research and Development Organization.

With a length of 16 metres it is shorter than earlier variants of the missile - the Agni I and Agni II - which are fully operational and have been inducted into India's armed forces. Agni I has a range of 700 kilometres, while Agni II can cover 2000 kilometres.

India's long-range missile test comes four days after North Korea test fired seven missiles raising an international outcry.

"The reaction to India's test cannot be the same as it has proved to be a responsible nuclear power," said Bedi.

The Agni III has been ready for a couple of years but a test had been reportedly put off for tactical reasons.

"They probably wanted to wait till the India-United States nuclear deal made headway in Congress," said Bedi.

India and the United States earlier this year agreed on a civilian nuclear energy deal which would allow the US to provide India nuclear technology and materials once the latter opened its civilian reactors to international safeguards.

A high-powered team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held talks with Indian officials in New Delhi Saturday to work out details of India-specific safeguards.

"They held useful and productive technical discussions ... and it was agreed that the two sides would meet again at a mutually convenient date to continue these discussions," a statement issued by India's Foreign Ministry said.

US gives green signal to Agni III

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1632293.cms

WASHINGTON: The United States has given New Delhi a go-ahead to test its Agni III missile as part of an overarching plan to groom India as a "junior partner" in the Indian Ocean region, the intelligence think-tank Stratfor has said.

Washington's green signal came during the recent visit to New Delhi of the U.S Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace, following which India has announced that the Agni III testing which it had deferred would be conducted in August, Stratfor reported in a June 7 commentary. With the assurance that the testing would not affect the pending U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear deal, Pace, it said, also indicated that the U.S would like India to assume a much greater role in patrolling the Strait of Malacca.

"Pace's four-day visit to New Delhi and his comments have a geopolitical undercurrent: The United States is developing India into a junior partner in the Indian Ocean region," the highly-regarded intelligence bulletin observed.

Stratfor said India had put off testing its Agni-III missile for fear of further endangering the U.S-India nuclear agreement. But Pace's June 5 announcement that Washington would not see the missile test as a nuclear-proliferation concern changed New Delhi reasoning. India, realizing that the United States likely would not approve the civilian nuclear deal until at least autumn, was happy to get the go-ahead from at least the U.S. executive branch.

However, the indications in Washington are that the nuclear deal could clear Congress in July, in which case an August test would not particularly affect its outcome. Even otherwise, August is a month of recess for the Congress and if the deal fails to pass in summer, it might as well be pushed to the next Congress which will be elected in November.

Stratfor though says New Delhi attention to -- and desire for -- U.S. approval suggests that India is playing its role in the development of a strategic partnership between Washington and New Delhi. The relationship is a potentially deep one: the United States will provide India with nuclear technology, development capital, and military hardware and training; in return, India will help safeguard U.S. interests in the Indian Ocean region, it said.

"The partnership could also powerfully demonstrate to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that the United States would not act to block a resurgent India from attacking Pakistan (not that such a scenario is likely) and also help take New Delhi out of Iran's orbit," Stratfor analysts, who are mostly former intelligence officials and remain unnamed, wrote.

The Stratfor analysis said Pace's visit merely formalized what has already been occurring: a coming together of Indian and American interests in a confederation of convenience. Washington would like New Delhi to break out of its shell and exert enough influence in the region to "at least annoy China and a recalcitrant Pakistan." New Delhi would like to get whatever it can from its latest patron, the United States, "in order to help alleviate its massive infrastructure problems, which are preventing India from becoming a major world power."

Washington, Stratfor said, would like India to shoulder responsibility and become a powerhouse in the Indian Ocean, second only to the U.S. Navy. The United States hopes that an India more involved in the Malacca Strait and with an improved navy will make China nervous.

As Malacca is a chokepoint for Chinese trade and energy supplies, the naval frontier is essentially the only potential conflict point between New Delhi and Beijing, which otherwise are for all intents and purposes a continent away from one another, it said.

http://www.indiapost.com/members/story.php?story_id=5327

US not against Agni-III test: Gen Pace

PTI Published: 2006-06-08

NEW DELHI: United States has sought to allay fears that any test firing by India of its longest range 3,000 kms ballistic missile Agni-III would be a destabilizing factor in the region and said it was not aware of any request for Indian troops to be sent to Afghanistan.

US will not view as "destabilizing" if India goes ahead with the test firing of the intermediate ballistic missile Agni-III, the top most ranking US military officer, General Peter Pace said here.

"Many countries in this region have tested missiles and as long as the weapons being tested are of defensive capability. We do not view it as destabilizing factor," said Pace, the visiting US Joint Chief of Staff, in reply to questions after a flurry of meetings with the Indian defense leadership, including the Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The General's comments assume significance as according to reports Indian Defense scientists have said they are ready to test fire the solid fuel missile, if given the political nod.

India as a sovereign state has the right to decide what weapons to test and when, he said in his first ever visit to India. He used the same argument to defend resumption of US arms aid to Pakistan.
"If countries feel more relaxed about perceived threats through assurance of their defense capabilities, it will lead to increase in stability in the region", Pace said.

Saying that developments in Afghanistan had figured prominently in his talks with Indian Military leadership, Pace said he was not aware of any reports of any request for India to send its troops to Afghanistan" nor of any such offer being made by India".

On whether Washington and New Delhi had reached any agreement on sale of anti-missile system, Pace, who is the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff to visit India since the July 2003 trip by General Richar Myers, said US had provided India with detailed classified briefings on the Patriot missile and it was up to India to make up its mind.

Declaring that Washington was keen to step up the pace of Military to Military interaction with India, Pace said the ways to do it had dominated his discussions with the Chairman Chiefs of Staff committee Admiral Arun Prakash and Army Chief Gen J J Singh.

He said for the first time India had been invited to participate in the world's most prestigious and tough air combat exercises "Red Flag" to be held in Mexico next year. He also said that the US had conveyed to India its interest in turning bilateral naval exercises to multilateral exercises.

Nuclear-capable Agni-III test fired for first time

Dhamra (Orissa), July. 9 (PTI): India's nuclear-capable intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-III, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 3,500 km, was successfully fired for the first time from a range in the Bay of Bengal today.

Defence sources said the surface-to-surface missile blasted off from a fixed platform at the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast at 11.05 hours as Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and top defence scientists looked on.

This was the first launch of the Agni-III, the most sophisticated product of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme that started in 1983. The testing of the missile has been repeatedly put off since November 2004 for a variety of reasons.

The countdown began early in the morning as scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) prepared for the launch under an overcast sky.

The 16-metre-long and 1.8-metre diameter missile, rose majestically into the sky, spewing thick yellow smoke and fire, eyewitnesses said.

An official spokesman in Delhi said, "The missile took off successfully. Details of the flight performance are being analysed by the mission team."

This is the 10th time that a missile of the Agni series has been launched from the test ranges at Chandipur-on-Sea and Wheeler Island. It was the fifth time that the Agni category of missiles has been tested from Wheeler Island.

DRDO chief M Natarajan, who is also Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, and Avinash Chander, Director of the Agni-III project, were present at the launch site.

The missile was fired from the fixed platform with the help of an auto-launcher.

Agni-III can be deployed by rail or road launch vehicles and is equipped with an improved guidance system, defence sources said.

Significantly, President A P J Abdul Kalam, referred to as the "father of India's missile development programme", visited Wheeler Island for a few hours during his three-day visit to Orissa last week.

Three sophisticated radars, six electro-optical tracking systems and three telemetric data stations on the mainland at Dhamra, Chandipur and Andamans as well as a ship stationed close to the splash down point monitored the trajectory of the Agni-III after it was fired from the island.

Fitted with an on-board computer, the missile took off vertically into space and re-entered the atmosphere to hit the impact point near Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal.

The two-stage missile has solid fuel boosters and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads weighing up to a tonne.

The missile fired today had the capability of carrying a payload of 1,000 kg, the sources said.

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