India Tests Long-Range Nuke Missile.

By Cernig

The test of the Agni III missile, a long-range weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead over 1,900 miles had been well anticipated by arms-wonks and defense watchers. Now the test has been confirmed:

INDIA carried out a successful test yesterday of its longest-range ballistic missile, the Agni III, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead more than 1,900 miles, scientists said.

Defence analysts say the Agni III is primarily designed to counter the military strength of China, which also has nuclear weapons, while shorter-range versions of the missile have been developed with long-time rival Pakistan in mind.

The Agni III is a state-of -the-art missile, capable of being launched from a sub, rail or road launcher and carrying a 250KT warhead. With a Circular Error Probability (CEP) of 16 meters, it is designed as to be capable of pre-emptive strikes on hardened missile silos or command bunkers. It catapults India into a new status - being a nuclear power with strategic reach. It intends to extend its reach in the future by developing an even longer range missile and a class of nuclear-powered missile submarines.

Yet India is dragging its feet about contact with the IAEA (it is not and has never been a signatory to the NPT) and even Bush administration officials are now sounding notes of caution about the US/India nuke deal which was touted by Bush as a foreign policy triumph just last December:

The Bush administration's landmark nuclear agreement with India risks collapse because Indian demands — including the right to continue testing nuclear weapons — undermine the U.S. rationale for seeking the deal.

President Bush sold the agreement to Congress last year by saying it would help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, avert an arms race between India and neighboring Pakistan, and cement the U.S. relationship with India.

...There is no deadline for completion of the deal, but two senior Bush administration officials said India's demands could torpedo an agreement. The two asked not to be named to avoid jeopardizing the talks, which are to resume later this month. They said India wants:

•Permission to buy uranium-enrichment and plutonium-reprocessing technology from the United States. Both have military applications, and sales are prohibited in most cases by U.S. law.

•No limits on testing nuclear weapons. The administration has told India that the United States reserves the right to terminate nuclear cooperation if India tests again. Its last test was in 1998.

•U.S. approval to reprocess used nuclear fuel from power plants. Such fuel can be turned into bombs.

Both senior administration officials and nuclear experts have said India's demands would increase — not lessen — its military nuclear capabilities. India and its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan have come to blows three times in the last few decades and almost did so again just a couple of years ago. China, Japan and other nations in the region are watching developments closely. To imagine that such will not be the trigger for a new arms race in the region and thus possible nuclear conflict is naivety at best. Yet that is the line both Republican and Democrat leaders seem to be following. I've described it previously as "America's next big foreign policy disaster".

Yet these dangerous and destabilizing developments are being largely ignored in the US while everyone works themselves into a lather over Iran, with a bare few hundred centrifuges operating at some 20% efficiency. All because of an embassy.

Update According to the BBC, an Indonesian passenger jet got a rude shock from the test - it was forced to turn round in Indian airspace to avoid the missile test flight. Indonesian officials are pissed at the lack of notice.

Can you imagine the cabin announcement? "We are turning back to avoid a nuclear-capable missile launch in our flightpath, there is no cause to be alarmed..."