India is all set to test-fire its intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) Agni-V which will be the first user trial of the missile and it will be done under the supervision of the Strategic Forces Command, responsible for the management and administration of India’s nuclear weapons. As per reports by the New Indian Express, the trial could take place on 23 September .

Already a area warning for a 3,000 kilometre-long-zone in the Indian Ocean has been issued by India for the launch of an experimental flight vehicle and the 5,000-km-range Agni V was to be inducted into service in 2020, after three trials conducted in 2018 and it will be test-fired with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles or MIRV technology as per reports.

However, the process was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, due to which some pre-induction tests could not take place. However once the Agni V missile is inducted, it will give India credible nuclear deterrent as it will bring Beijing and many other Chinese cities within the range of Indian land-based nuclear weapons..

India has claimed that the range of this missile is only 5,000km, however Chinese experts have claime the actual range of the missile could be around 8,000 km and accuse India of “deliberately downplayed the missile’s capability in order to avoid causing concern to other countries.”

Developed in the early 1960s, MIRVs allow a missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets. While traditional missiles can carry one warhead, a MIRVed one can carry multiple warheads.

“Warheads on MIRVed missiles can be released from the missile at different speeds and in different directions. Some MIRVed missiles can hit targets as far as 1,500 kilometres apart,” a factsheet on the website of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation says, adding, “It requires the combination of large missiles, small warheads, accurate guidance, and a complex mechanism for releasing warheads sequentially during flight.”

India had previosuly tested indigenous MIRV technology in Agni P missile, flight-tested in June, and other nations that have this capability are the US, Russia, France, the UK, and China use MIRV technology. Pakistan which is known for nuclar and billistic missile prolifiration reportedly tested its own so called version in January 2017 using its Ababeel medium-range ballistic missile, which has a reported range of 2,200 km.

However, Pakistan Army has not verified the Ababeel missile uses MIRV technology which has been a point of debate among experts.

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