As per official sources, India is capable of developing missiles that can hit targets located more than 8,000 km away. “We will develop it as and when we see a need to develop a missile longer in range than Agni-V, we have the capability to do it,” said the Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister V.K Saraswat. Since DRDO had already crossed the threshold of making a system with longer capability and developing its sub-systems, making a longer version of Agni-V would be easier.
In the recent past, India test fired the nuclear-capable Agni-V Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile that brought China within its reach with a strike range of over 5,000km. Agni-V had major propulsion blocks and a kind of aviation technology which makes it a suitable launch vehicle for sending small satellites into space. It is understood that work on the project has already commenced at the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The timeframe for its development has not yet been specified.