India tests nuclear capable missile

India tests nuclear capable missile

Agence France-Presse, Bhubaneshwar/India

India on Sunday tested a short range nuclear capable missile off the east coast, a defense official said, just weeks after talks with Pakistan on reducing the risk of atomic confrontation.

The homegrown Agni surface-to-surface missile, with a strike range of 700 kilometers, was fired from a mobile launcher at Wheeler Island off eastern Orissa state, the official said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee had congratulated defense scientists for the successful test, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

However, Pakistan said it was not worried about the missile test as it was a "sovereign right" for any country to enhance its defense and military capability.

During June 19-20 talks in New Delhi, India and Pakistan 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 impending missile tests.

The 12 metre high missile fired on Sunday, one of the variants of the Agni series, can carry a one-ton payload. It is powered by solid fuel which enables it to travel at 2.5 kilometers per second.

It can be fired from both rail-based and road-mobile missile launchers.

"This provides the missile with greater operational flexibility", the defense official said.

The missile was first tested on Jan. 25, 2002 and again on Jan.9, 2003 from the same launch site.

Early last month, Pakistan successfully test a ballistic missile, Hatf V, which has a range of 1,500 kilometers. The missile could carry nuclear warheads deep inside India.

"Both countries (Pakistan and India) do the tests. It is a sovereign right of a country to take any measure for its defense," chairman of Pakistan's senate foreign relations committee Mushahid Hussain told AFP.

"We reserve the sovereign right to improve our defense capability and same right be granted to other countries," Hussain said.

"We do not take exception to that, any other country can do it also."

Days ago media reports in Pakistan quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying that Islamabad would conduct an "important" missile test in two months' time.

Musharraf did not disclose details of the test but said domestic critics who believed that Pakistan had decided to roll back its nuclear and missile programs were living in a "fool's paradise", the Dawn newspaper said on Thursday.

Indian security analyst C.U. Bhaskar said the tests by India and Pakistan were part of efforts to achieve "operational credibility" in relation to their missile programs.

"A rough thumb rule is ... to conduct 25 to 40 tests before a particular missile is operationally proven and becomes part of the inventory," he said describing the tests as routine with more to follow.

Washington on Thursday expressed concern over Pakistan's move to conduct a key missile test saying it would revive dangers posed by nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as well as of an arms race in South Asia.

Bhaskar however dismissed such apprehensions saying that as India and Pakistan engaged in nuclear confidence building measures, both sides also wanted to have a "comprehensive" inventory of missiles.

"We know what we are doing ... (so) a missile test should not generate that kind of anxiety anywhere," he said.