On Sunday (January 27th, 2012) India made a major stride towards completing its nuclear triad capability by successfully test firing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal.
India is only the fifth country to have such a missile — the other four are the United States, Russia, France and China.
K-5 ballistic missile, which is also known as BO5, has been developed by DRDO’s Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).
More than 10 trials of the missile have been performed earlier. Sunday’s was the last development trial of K-5
“The medium range K-5 ballistic missile was test fired successfully today from an underwater pontoon and all parameters of the test firing were met,” Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief VK Saraswat said from an undisclosed test area.
This missile will help India to achieve the capability of launching nuclear warheads from underwater facilities. So far, India had the capability of delivering nuclear weapons from land and aerial platforms only.
