India tests Agni-5 missile laced with re-entry vehicle tech

India has conducted the first flight test of indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology, the country's prime Minister announced on Monday.

"Proud of our DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra, the first flight test...," Modi wrote on X.

According to US-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the MIRVs were originally developed in the early 1960s to permit a missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets.

MIRVs can carry multiple warheads.

With the test of the mission, according to public broadcaster All India Radio, "India has joined the select group of nations who have MIRV capability."

"This system is equipped with indigenous Avionics systems and high accuracy sensor packages, which ensured that the re-entry vehicles reached the target points within the desired accuracy," it wrote on X. "The capability is an enunciator of India's growing technological prowess."