With China in Range, India Fires N-Capable Agni-V

"The sleek missile, within a few seconds of its blast-off from the Island launch pad roared majestically into the sky leaving behind its a trajectory a trail of thin orange and white smoke before disappearing," said an eyewitness to the launch conducted amid light drizzling.

The surface-to-surface Agni-V is capable of striking a target more than 5,000 km away. It is about 17 meter long and two metre wide with launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The sophisticated missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne.

Preparation for Agni-V test had gathered momentum after India achieved successful results from the first development trial of Agni IV, which has a strike range of more than 3,500 km, from the same launch pad on November 15, 2011.

Apart from Saraswat, who is also the scientific advisor to the defence minister, a host of top defence scientists, military officials and functionaries of concerned agencies were present at the site to monitor, supervise and witness the maiden test of the new generation missile.

Top scientiests present at the test site said at least 20 laboratories of the DRDO were engaged for several months to prepare the state-of-the-art missile.