India is all set to conduct the first user trial of the Agni-V intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) in October, a Times of India report said and the test will be conducted in full operational configuration.
A while back India had issued an area warning for a 3,000 km-long zone in the Indian Ocean for the launch of an experimental flight vehicle and as per a New Indian Express report, the missile was to be tested in September 23-24 September.
The report had also stated that the missile would be test-fired with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles or MIRV technology. However, the Agni-V launch says “it will take another two years for a MIRVed missile to be flight-tested”.
Having MIRVs technology would allow India to fire just one missile that will deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets compared to traditional missiles that can carry one warhead.
An earlier report in ToI had said which now stands dismissed that of the claim that the Agni-P missile test-fired in June this year had a MIRVed warhead was “highly-miniaturised” missile “included decoys”.
Developed in the early 1960s, MIRVs allow a missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets. While traditional missiles can carry one warhead, an 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.”
As of now the US, Russia, France, the UK, and China have MIRV technology, and Pakistan reportedly tested one in January 2017 using its Ababeel medium-range ballistic missile, which has a reported range of 2,200 km. But this claim of possessing the MIRV technology remains unverified.
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