Click to play videoNew Delhi: India is putting its missile reach to test again. Agni-III, India's most potent nuclear capable missile, is likely to be test-fired on Thursday.
The test firing of the Agni-III missile from the Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday seeks to demonstrate how far India can deliver its nuclear weapons, if attacked.
The Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the test-firing of the 3,000-km range, nuclear capable missile.
If successful, it will extend the range of India's nuclear weapons beyond its immediate neighbourhood.
Missile technologists are now hoping to put behind them the disappointment of a failed first launch in July 2006. A defective heat shield was said to be the cause.
"These failures will have to be fed back into the design process to make the system more rugged," said ex chief adviser of DRDO K Santhanam.
Inter-continental missile reach is considered the benchmark in establishing nuclear weapons capability. And a successful Agni-III, which is designed to carry a 1.5-ton nuclear bomb, can put India within a threshold of this reach.
So far, it has a proven range of just over 2,000 km with the Agni-II. Greater reach can give it a more assured second-strike capability.
The first failed-test of Agni-III made it clear to the world that India is still some distance away from being a credible nuclear weapons power.
With its missile capability is on test again, India has to prove that it has the bite to back its bark.
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