India to take its missile threat beyond Asia

The country hopes this week to join a select group of countries with the intercontinental missiles.The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said it plans the maiden launch of the Agni-V missile, which has a range of more than 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles), between Wednesday and Friday.The exact launch date has not yet been set because this is our longest-range missile and there are many logistics issues and hence we dont plan for one (particular) day, DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta told AFP.Agni-V is a 5,000-plus kilometre range missile and it is to meet our present-day threat perceptions, which are determined by our defence forces and other agencies, Gupta said from the test site.The Agni-V would in theory be able to strike targets across Asia and some parts of Europe. Only China, Russia, France, the United States, Great Britain and Israel are thought to have such long-distance missiles.