Xinhuanet, NEW DELHI: India has started integrating the3,000 kilometer range Agni III Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), an advisor to the Indian Defense Minister said Friday.
“We have started integrating it (Agni III). In this kind of high-end technologies, it is very difficult for me to indicate a time,” the Press Trust of India quoted V. K. Aatre, Scientific Advisor to the Defense Minister as saying Friday.
Talking to reporters in Bangalore, Aatre said, “It is certainly not in the next three months. I am planning to do it (this year), but I can't be certain of it.”
“I need three months clearance once I finish all the tests (on the missile). At present, we have not finished the tests,” he added.
“The Agni III missile would have a range of over 3,000 kilometers. We have all the technologies. In fact, the Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) needs a larger engine, longer burning time, improvement in the guidance system, among others,” he said.
“It is not a question of whether we can build an ICBM or not, but whether we want to build an ICBM, which I am not going to talk about,” Aatre said.
He said the Agni I and Agni II missiles are under induction in the armed forces.
Agni III's predecessors, Agni-I and Agni-II have a range of 800kilometers and 2,500 kilometers respectively.
However, after the May 1998 series of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, both proving themselves as nuclear powers, fear exists in the international community that a small disagreement between the long time enemies could spark nuclear war.
