India’s submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is ready for production. Its pre-production test flight on Wednesday from a pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam was successful.
The missile is ready for integration with the country’s nuclear submarine ‘INS Arihant’. The capability puts India among the elite club of nations possessing such weapons. These include the US, Russia, France, UK, Israel and China.
The underwater-launched ballistic missile was tested for the minimum range as per the requirement of the user. It achieved all its objectives, said Avinash Chander, Chief Controller R&D (Missiles & Strategic Systems).
The missile system for the nuclear-powered Arihant platform will give the country the complete cycle of possessing options to deploy nuclear weapons from air, land and under sea. This is the tenth flight test of the missile.
The missile has a maximum range of 700 km , according to defence experts.
Source – Business Line
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