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.