Air drill & Agni-V test: India signals to China

NEW DELHI: In two-pronged strategic signalling to China on Thursday, India tested its most formidable nuclear-capable missile Agni-V, even as the IAF kicked off an exercise with frontline fighters like Rafales and Sukhoi-30MKIs to fine-tune its combat readiness in the eastern sector.

The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) in collaboration with DRDO conducted the test of the over 5,000-km range Agni-V ballistic missile, which brings even the northernmost part of China within its strike envelope, from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast at 5.45 pm.
"The three-stage solid-fuelled Agni-V, in its full operational configuration, was successfully tested for its entire range. The missile incorporated some new technologies to make it lighter as well as enable it to go to a longer distance," a source told TOI.
The SFC had last tested the Agni-V in October 2021, which the defence ministry had then stated was in conformity with India's stated policy to have "credible minimum deterrence that underpins our commitment to no first-use".
The Agni-V is operationally better than earlier Agni variants because it is a canister-launch missile to ensure less maintenance as well as swifter transportation and firing. It provides India with stronger deterrence against China, which has a huge nuclear arsenal and missiles like the Dong Feng-41 (12,000-15,000-km) that can hit any Indian city.
Earlier on Thursday, the Shillong-based Eastern Air Command launched the two-day consolidated air combat training exercise in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which also included C-130J 'Super Hercules' aircraft and drones, Apache attack and Chinook heavy-lift choppers.
IAF said it was a "pre-planned exercise" and not connected to the major physical clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers at Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9.
But it does come at a time when the People's Liberation Army-Air Force (PLAAF) has cranked up deployments of aircraft, helicopters and drones along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) across Arunachal Pradesh.
Similar heightened air activity by PLAAF has been taking place across eastern Ladakh since mid-June, with Chinese fighters sometimes violating the 10-km no-fly zone confidence-building measure.
In the eastern sector, the IAF has also had to scramble Sukhoi fighters at least "two-three times over the last two-three weeks" as a precautionary air defence measure after "radar pick-ups" of Chinese aircraft near the LAC, as was reported by TOI.
China has systematically upgraded all its major air-bases facing India like Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa and Shigatse with extended runways, hardened shelters and fuel storage facilities for additional fighters, bombers, drones and reconnaissance aircraft.
Apart from other measures, the IAF in turn based a squadron of its latest omni-role Rafale jets at the Hasimara air base in West Bengal, which is close to the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction on the eastern front with China, from July 2021 onwards.
Though China has more than four times the number of fighters and bombers as compared to India, the high-altitude and rarefied air at its air-bases severely limits the weapon and fuel-carrying capacity of aircraft. IAF, with a distinct "terrain advantage", can deploy fully-loaded Rafale and Sukhoi fighters from bases like Hasimara, Tezpur and Chabua for strike missions across the frontier.