The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on Friday that India has conducted the successful flight-trial of an advanced version of the nuclear-capable Agni missile with Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha, Thursday.

Without specifying which variant of the Agni missile was used, the MoD said the missile was flight-tested with multiple payloads, targeted to different targets spatially distributed over a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region.

“The telemetry and tracking was carried out by multiple ground and ship-based stations. These systems tracked the entire missile trajectory from lift-off till the impact of all payloads. Flight data confirmed that all mission objectives were met during the trial. With this successful trial, India once again demonstrated the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system. This missile is developed by DRDO laboratories with the support of industries across the country. The trial was witnessed by senior scientists of DRDO and Indian Army personnel,” the MoD said.

More than two years ago, on March 11, 2024 the MoD had said it had carried out the first successful flight test of the indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with MIRV technology.

While there was no official confirmation of the range of the missile tested on Thursday, a NOTMAR (Note to Mariners) issued for the window of May 6 to 9 for the Bay of Bengal was to the range of around 3,600 km, suggesting the missile hit targets within this range.