India test-fires Agni V missile successfully

With this, India joined the elite missile club of the US, Russia, France and China.

The surface-to-surface Agni-V is capable of striking a target more than 5,000 km away. It is about 17-metres-long and two-metres-wide with launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The sophisticated missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne.

"We had a successful launch of Agni-V. The missile lifted off at 8.07 hours today," Defence Research and Development Organisation chief V K Saraswat said after the three-stage solid propellant missile was test fired from launch complex-4 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.

Agni-V had a smooth and perfect vertical lift-off from the launcher and a thorough analysis was done to assess its health parameters after retrieval of data from the wide range of sophisticated communication network systems, Saraswat said.

"The sleek missile, within a few seconds of its blast-off from the Island launch pad roared majestically into the sky leaving behind its a trajectory a trail of thin orange and white smoke before disappearing," a defence official said.

The test-fire, which was originally scheduled to be held yesterday, had to be deferred at the last moment for safety reasons due to bad weather marked by rains and heavy lightning.

New Delhi's deterrence capability will now be further strengthened and it will push its case for having a greater say at multilateral fora.

India has at present in its armoury of Agni series, Agni 1 with 700 km range, Agni 2 with 2,000 km range, Agni 3 and Agni 4 with 2,500 km to more than 3,500 km range.

Hailing the successful launch of the indigenously developed missile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it represents another milestone in India's quest to add to its security preparedness.