New Delhi:

India has efficiently carried out night time trials of the Agni V nuclear-capable ballistic missile which might hit targets past 5,400 km, sources within the Defence Ministry mentioned on Thursday, amid heightened tensions with China over clashes alongside the de facto border in Arunachal Pradesh final week.

The check was carried out to validate new applied sciences and gear on the missile and has proved that the missile can now hit targets additional away than earlier than, they added.

The nuclear-capable ballistic missile was fired from Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha. This is the ninth flight of the Agni V – a missile first examined in 2012 – and was a routine check, Defence Ministry sources mentioned.

While the check was carried out days after the clashes, it had been deliberate earlier. India had introduced its intention to check a long-range missile and issued a NOTAM or Notice to Airmen nicely earlier than the incident in Arunachal’s Tawang.

With the incursion in Arunachal, China had tried to “unilaterally change the status quo” on the de facto border referred to as Line of Actual Control final week, triggering clashes that left troops on each side injured, the federal government had mentioned, including that the try had been efficiently repulsed.

The incident is considered essentially the most critical on the nuclear-armed Asian giants’ disputed frontier since 2020 when 20 Indian troops and 4 Chinese troopers died in brawling in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

China and India fought a full-scale struggle in 1962 over management of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims in its entirety and considers a part of Tibet.

The conflict in Tawang adopted joint army workout routines that irked Beijing final month between India and the United States in Uttarakhand, which borders China.