NEW DELHI (TIP): India onFebruary 7 said it is developing a longrangenuclear-capable Agni-VIballistic missile that would carrymultiple warheads allowing oneweapon system to take out severaltargets at a time.”Agni-V is a major strategic defenceweapon. Now we want to make Agni-VI which would be a force multiplier,”DRDO chief V K Saraswat said here.

Refusing to divulge the range of thenew under-development missile, hesaid the force multiplier capability ofthe missile would be because of itsMultiple Independently Targetable ReentryVehicle (MIRV) capability.The Agni-5 ballistic missile, whichwas test-fired in April last year, has arange of upto 5,500 kms and it isbelieved that the Agni-6 would have arange longer than its predecessor.

“It will have force multipliercapability by the MIRV approachwhich would enable us to delivermany payloads at the same time usingonly one missile. Work is on in thisarea and designs have been completed.We are now in the hardwarerealisation phase,” he said.DRDO officials said once the Agni-6is developed, it would propel Indiainto the elite club of nations withsuch a capability including the US andRussia.The DRDO chief said hisorganisation was also workingtowards developing a cruise missiledefence programme which wouldenable the armed forces to defendagainst low-flying cruise missiles andenemy aircraft.