India on Monday successfully conducted a test flight of the indigenously developed Agni-5 missile, which is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads meant to hit several targets simultaneously.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation on the success of Mission Divyastra, as the test was named.

Agni is a long-range missile that has been in the Indian armed forces arsenal since the early 1990s. The Agni-5 tested on Monday is the latest variant of the missile equipped with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle or MIRV technology.

The United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom are known to have this technology, reported NDTV.

Agni-5 missiles can be launched from land or sea from a submarine and have a range of more than 5,000 kilometres.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was proud of scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation for successfully carrying out the flight test.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organisation team that developed this missile.

He added that with the successful test “India has joined the select group of nations” who have the Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry capability.