The Agni-V is a ballistic missile on a mobile ramp of 17 three-stage fifty-ton meters, designed to transport a warhead from 1,5 tons to over 5000 kilometers away. It has been dubbed by the Indian media as the "China-killer", as it is considered able to hit all major Chinese cities like Beijing. In reality, the missile would be able to hit all of Asia and parts of Eastern Europe. What will come into service should have the capacity to carry up to three MIRV warheads.
So, can India be counted among the countries that have strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles?
Beyond the slogans, Indian efforts do not seem to pose a threat. For the Chinese, in fact, the missile would have obvious design limits that have not yet been resolved and pose no threat to the Beijing regime. The Chinese tabloids themselves, commenting on the previous tests, invited India not to "overestimate its strength". Despite the efforts made to minimize the real autonomy of the carrier, the missiles, according to the Chinese, would have been designed to hit every part of China.
Beijing knows perfectly well that behind the Indian efforts, there is the United States that has all the advantage of having a friendly country with ICBM in the Region. India, however, is not considered in any way a possible threat, just think that Beijing has 240 nuclear warheads mounted on the latest generation vectors and another eighty medium and long-range ICBMs.
Even Pakistan does not consider Indian missile efforts to be dangerous, considered as simple tests for a system still far from becoming operational.
For NATO, the Indian ICBM threat is zero, while the United States encourages tests included in the growing strategic challenge taking place in the Region.
The new carrier "Agni-VI" deserves a separate discussion, a project still at an embryonic stage. At least on paper, the new three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile should be forty meters high, weighing seventy tons and armed with MARV warheads. Its autonomy should be twelve thousand kilometers.
The only countries in possession of intercontinental ballistic missiles are the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France, China and Israel.
Franco Iacch
