India test-fires nuclear-capable missile.

I wonder if India are testing with offense or defence in mind...or both. It's also interesting the test
was conducted 'off-shore'.

India has tested a short-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead off its eastern coast, defence sources said.

The Indian-made Dhanus (Bow), with a strike range of 250 kilometres was test-fired from naval ship INS Subhadra at around 12:20pm (local time) in the Bay of Bengal off the state of Orissa, the sources said.

The Indian defence sources said the Dhanus is a naval variant of India's surface-to-surface Prithivi (Earth) II missile.

www.abc.net.au...

Sanc'.

you make statments about me, I test a missile, you buy some jets, I build some tanks...

Weren't the Europeans busy doing this sort of thing a hundred years ago?

As to off-shore....

For the last ten years we've seen endless footage of Tomahawks being launched and then seen the (almost pin-point) destruction they've wrought. Who wouldn't want that kind of capability?

This isn't any really big news, at least once a week a country test fires a missile, and most missile can be nuclear tipped.

It is big news to western countries if 3rd world countries begin to obtain the means and knowhow to build weapons of this kind indigeniously. The Indian Navy is a potent entity, but some ATS posters (mostly chinese) seem to think otherwise. Its capacity supercedes defensive capabilities as carriers are not meant for defense. Hence the 'blue water' name tag. Also a 250km range missile could be used as a offensive measure or otherwise.

IMHO a sea launched missile with a 250km range wouldn't be nuclear tipped unless it was aimed at a carrier group or something. None of Indias current potential foes possess carriers hence the missile must be for conventional use only. But for me the ambiguity of the intended targets for such missiles still remains. Anybody care to elaborate?

Originally posted by Murcielago
This isn't any really big news, at least once a week a country test fires a missile, and most missile can be nuclear tipped.

Your correct but still the fact range and payload they carry grows all the time worries, wonder when India has ICBM capable missiles after such mass produced you can say bye bye to convience one country on its policy.

IMHO India already has ICBM capability in theory, although they have not pursued that course of development becasue they never perceived any nation that far away as a threat. After the US, Russia, EU and China, India is only the 4th entity which has the capability to launch satelites into geosynch orbit. The amount of technical knowhow required for that is not trivial.
Although IMHO India does seem to be currently lacking in re-entry mechanisms. They are currently experimenting with heat shield designs which will be required for the lunar mission "chandrayaan" (moon vehicle) slated for 2008 or something.

japan and brazil also posses this capability I believe

^^Yes my bad, Japan does possess geosynch capability but brazil does not.

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