India 10 years behind China in missile technology

Wednesday, 17 February 2010, 14:56 IST
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India 10 years behind China in missile technology
Beijing: Despite India has shown its power in developing interceptor technology, the country seems to be a decade behind of China. And, a Chinese defence analyst claims that Beijing does not view New Delhi as its "strategic rival." Pushing aside the concerns that latest version of India's Agni missiles could strike the northernmost tips of China, Defence Analyst said that India will have to wait five m,ore years to achieve this capability. Chinese Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, Professor at Chinese National Defence University said that India is still 10 to 15 years behind China in terms of missile technology. "It's still unknown when the Agni-III will be deployed by the Indian army, though they claim the missile is ready for use. And it might take at least another five years to ready the Agni-V," said Zhang. He also said that in developing its military technology, China has never taken India as a strategic rival, and none of its weapons were specifically designed to contain India. Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu had described China's ties with India as "friendly and co-operative", and said both countries did not pose mutual threat. "I don't want to interpret or comment on the reports. The China-India relation is friendly and cooperative. China will not be a threat to India, and nor will India pose a threat to China," said Ma. India is prepared to test within a year an Agni-V nuclear- capable missile with a range of more than 5,000 kilometres. DRDO chief V K Saraswat said, "We feel our accuracy is better than China's DF 21." The DF-21 is China's mid-range missile that debuted in 1999, along with its intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF- 31, which the army utilises.