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| Agni-V IRBM |
India has been flexing its military muscles recently in a move that can only be seen as a display of power for the benefit of its nuclear neighbours China and Pakistan.
On 19 April, India test-fired its Agni-V long-range ballistic missile. With a reach of over 5,000km it could easily hit Beijing, but the Indian media has been at pains to point out that the Agni-V is an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) and not a true intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which would have a range in excess of 5,500km.
Such distinctions hardly fool anyone in light of the missile's potential nuclear payload, however, and the Agni-V places India firmly in an exclusive nuclear club alongside China, France, Russia, the US and UK.
Read the full story at Defence Management