India joined the Agni-5 multiwarhead group

With its 5,000-kilometer range and capacity to launch multiple warheads, India’s Agni-5 missile successfully test-fired on Monday, putting the northernmost region of China within striking reach.

India became a member of a restricted group of countries that can launch multiple warheads, along with the US, the UK, Russia, France, and China, with this test, known as Mission Divyastra. “Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) technology,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X.

A missile equipped with MIRV technology may carry and fire multiple warheads at one or more targets. A conventional missile has a single warhead on board. The Agni-5 missile, conceived and designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is a truck-borne, canister-launched device.

An intercontinental surface-to-surface ballistic missile is the Agni-5. It weighs around fifty tons and has a payload capacity of one and a half tonnes. The previous Agni series had a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers. India conducted the first-ever endo-atmospheric interceptor missile flight test from a ship off the coast of Odisha last year.