The Indian embassy from China on Monday evening took to microblogging site X (formerly Twitter) to hail the successful first flight test of indigenously new-age Agni-5 ballistic missile, calling it ‘Divyastra’ and sharing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s congratulatory message for the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) scientists. The brief post has now gone viral.
The Indian embassy’s post has garnered widespread attention with over 11,000 likes and 2,800 reposts.
The major announcement on the Agni-5 missile on Monday is also a big message to Beijing and further strengthens the government’s image of ensuring the security of the nation against adversaries like Pakistan and China.
India on Monday tested Mission Divyastra — the first flight test of the indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) technology. The Prime Minister announced this on social media platform X.
India will be the sixth nation after the P5 countries (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to have this kind of capability with MIRV technology.
Agni-5 is primarily for enhancing India’s nuclear deterrence against China as it has a range of 5,000-7,000 km. In November 2021, India tested the nuclear-capable version of Agni-5 successfully. On 15 December 2022, the first night trial of Agni-5 was successfully carried out by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha.
The new test, however, goes much beyond, officials said.
“This (the latest test) will ensure that a single missile can deploy multiple warheads at different locations. With the test of Mission Divyastra, India has joined the select group of nations who have MIRV capability,” government officials said.
According to a report in The Times of India, weeks before India held the flight-test of its 5,000-km-range Agni-5 inter-continental ballistic missile, Beijing sent its second research vessel to the Indian shores, besides the first one that was anchored off the Maldives, to likely keep tabs on the crucial test from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.
According to maritime analytics provider Marine Traffic, the Chinese ship ‘Xiang Yang Hong 01’ departed from the Chinese port of Qingdao on Feb 23. Open-source intelligence expert Damien Symon showed the 4,425-tonne ship’s entry into the Bay of Bengal on Sunday on social media platform X.
