India is souping up its nuclear missiles

To an idle observer on Abdul Kalam Island, an Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal, the missile that shot into the sky on March 11th was little different from scores of similar launches that have occurred there since the 1980s. A more discerning bystander might have noted that it was the tenth test of the Agni V, India’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of reaching any part of China. But even the most astute missile-watcher would not have known the significance of the launch, which lay inside the nose cone.

This month’s launch is thought to be the first time that India has tested a missile with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, known as MIRVs, first developed by America in the 1960s. These are small warheads, crammed atop a single missile, each capable of striking targets hundreds of kilometres apart from one another. The test is a technological triumph for Indian scientists. It “marks a significant development for India’s nuclear posture, and faster than we anticipated just a few years ago”, write Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda, experts at the Federation of American Scientists, a research group. It could also affect nuclear dynamics in Asia.