South Asia’s Arms Race Heats Up by Eric Margolis

India just launched what the media called its "first intercontinental ballistic missile." India did indeed launch a new, 5,000 km-ranged Agni-V missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to Beijing and Shanghai.
Previously, India’s 3,500-km Agni-III did not have the range to hit China’s major coastal cities.
But Agni-V is not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), as wrongly reported. Nor was the missile North Korea launched on 15 April that fell apart soon after liftoff. Some media wrongly claimed it was an ICBM that could hit the United States.
One longs for the days when media employed real war correspondents who understood military affairs.
A true ICBM has a minimum range of at least 8,000 km and more likely 12,000 km. India and North Korea’s missiles were medium ranged ballistic missiles (MRBM’s). The difference is important because MRBM’s are theater weapons while ICBM’s threaten the entire globe.
India crowed with pride over the nuclear Viagra of its Agni-V launch. One government scientist claimed Agni-V made India "a major missile power." By contrast, India’s growing rival, China, dismissed the launch with a disdainful sniff. North Korea was blasted by just about everyone for trying to launch its MRBM.
As this column has been writing for years, India is indeed emerging as a major military power.
In 2000, my first book, War at the Top of the World, began examining the growth of India’s military and postulated that India and China would one day go to war over their ill-defined Himalayan border and Burma.
Today, India has become the world’s largest importer of arms. India’s navy is to deploy three aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines with ballistic missiles, a powerful air force, and armed forces of 1.3 million. India has long land and maritime frontiers and needs large, well-equipped military forces.
India and China have long been locked in an arms race, though neither will admit it. China holds a lead over India in modernized armed forces, but India is catching up. India is deeply concerned over China’s land, air and missile forces on the Tibetan Plateau overlooking the plains of India, and by China’s development of blue water naval forces that are edging into the Indian Ocean.
Yet almost unnoticed by the outside world, India has also been long working to develop a true ICBM that can reach North America, Europe and Australia. Why India, a nation of deep poverty, needs a missile that can deliver nuclear warheads to New York or Paris, remains a mystery.
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