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India plans long-range missile test
BANGALORE, India -- India says it hopes to test a long-range nuclear capable missile later this year that would be capable of striking targets deep inside China. The missile -- a variant of the indigenous Agni missile -- would have a range of 3,000 kilometers, V.K. Aatre, scientific adviser to Defense Minister George Fernandes, said Wednesday. "It [the test] should be some time in the later part of the year," Aatre told reporters on the sidelines of the AeroIndia 2003 airshow in Bangalore. "It [the range] will be 3,000 km (1,875 miles) plus, hopefully," he added. The Agni-3 test would follow on from testing of other Agni variants, including a shorter-range version which was fired last month, drawing criticism from neighboring Pakistan. India declared itself a nuclear power in 1998 following a series of underground tit-for-tat nulear tests with neighboring Pakistan, sparking fears of an arms race on the subcontinent. The bitter rivals, who stood on the brink of war last year, both regularly engage in missile tests to show their readiness to hit back in the event of attack. Though China and India fought a border war in 1962, relations have improved recently, particularly as India eyes the benefits of increasing trade links and economic ties with its northern neighbor. China has its own nuclear weapons capability and is thought to currently maintain about 20 DF-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 13-15,000 kilometers, as well as several other medium- and short-range nuclear capable missiles. Included in the Chinese arsenal are a number of medium range submarine-launched ballistic missiles but is thought to have only one operational submarine capable of launching them. Early last year Beijing dismissed as "baseless" a CIA report saying that China was looking to upgrade its long-range missile fleet to more than 100, largely in the face of U.S. efforts to build a missile defense shield. Reuters contributed to this report.
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