India tests under sea N-capable missile; China tests interceptor missile

Video Courtesy: DRDO

 Moving a step closer to completing its nuclear triad, India today successfully test fired a ballistic missile, with a strike range of around 1500 kilometres, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal.

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed under Water launched Missile B05 was successfully flight tested  off the coast of Visakhapatnam, an official press note said. 

The Missile launched from a pontoon, was tested for the full range and met all the mission objectives.  All the parameters of the vehicle were monitored by the Radar all through the trajectory and terminal events have taken place exactly as expected.

Nuclear triad is the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. Saraswat said that the development phase of themissile, which is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), was over and it was now ready for deployment on various platforms including the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant which is under development.

Meanwhile even as I write this, PTI reports from Beijing that China today successfully carried out its second missile interceptor test, the Defence Ministry announced. 

China carried out a land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory today, state-run Xinhua news agency reported attributing the news to the Information Bureau of China's Defence Ministry.

"The test has reached the preset goal," an official with the Bureau said without providing details. "The test is defensive in nature and targets no other country," he said. The last such reported test was in January, 2010