India has a new carrier of nuclear warheads. Yesterday, June 28, the press service of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of the Ministry of Defense of India announced the successful tests of the new Agni P missile.
"DRDO has successfully conducted flight tests of a new generation ballistic missile with Agni P nuclear capabilities from the island of Abdul-Kalam. Various telemetry and radar stations located along the east coast tracked and controlled the missile. The rocket followed a given trajectory, completing all the mission tasks with high accuracy",- the DRDO press service reported.
Launch of the Agni P rocket
Image source: pib.gov.in
The DRDO indicates that the Agni P is a new surface-to-surface missile in the Agni family. It has a range of "from 1000 to 2000 km" and is capable of carrying both "conventional" and nuclear warheads.
Earlier, the Indian Defense Ministry adopted the Agni-1 (range — 700 km), Agni-2 (2000 km), Agni-3 (2500 km), Agni-4 (3500 km) and Agni-5 (5000 km) missiles. These missiles allow the country to maintain nuclear parity with Pakistan and "communicate on an equal footing" with China. It is known that India is developing an Agni-6 missile with the possibility of underwater launch and a flight range of 8,000-10,000 km.