India Tests Nuclear Capable Missile As Chinese Spy Ship Watches.

Sept 2025 : India demonstrated its nuclear capabilities by conducting a missile test on Wednesday (24^th. September, 2025) as its rival, China, sent a spy ship capable of tracking missiles to the Indian Ocean.

India and China are among the Nine Nuclear Armed countries and are estimated to possess 180 and 600 warheads, respectively, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Pakistan, India’s rival and China’s ally, has 170 nuclear warheads in its possession.

Like other nuclear powers, India regularly tests its unarmed nuclear-capable missiles, most recently the Agni-5 intermediate-range ballistic missile in August. Earlier this month, China held a high-profile military parade to showcase its new nuclear missiles. The Test conducted on Wednesday comes as tensions between India and Pakistan remain high after the nuclear rivals fought a large scale conventional war in May. India also has border disputes with China, whose foreign ministers recently met in New Delhi for talks.

India’s Ministry of Defense announced that an Agni (Prime), also known as the Agni-P, a ballistic missile was successfully launched from a rail-based mobile launcher at an undisclosed site in the country under what it described as “a full operational scenario”. The ministry has reaffirmed that the launch have met all its objectives. The specially designed rail-based mobile launcher provides cross-country mobility and can fire a missile with a short reaction time, reducing the missile system’s visibility.

“Rail based mobile launcher is self-sustained and is equipped with all independent launch capability features including the state-of-the-art communication systems and protection mechanisms“, said an Indian defence ministry vide an official statement on Thursday.

The Agni-Prime is described as “a new generation nuclear-capable ballistic missile” and has a stated range of 621 to 1,242 miles, suggesting it was likely developed to strike Pakistan rather than China, given the limited Chinese targets within this range from northern India.

Damien Symon, an open-source intelligence analyst, said on the social media platform X that India had declared a no-fly zone over the Bay of Bengal for a likely missile test—conducted from a north eastern island, which was effective from Wednesday till Thursday.

Prior to India’s missile test, the Chinese missile and satellite-tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5 was spotted in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia on September 18. It remains unclear whether the ship was tasked with collecting intelligence on the Agni-Prime missile.

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh posted on X on Thursday: “This successful flight test has put India in the group of select nations having capabilities that have developed canisterised launch system from on the move rail network”.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Missile Dialogue Initiative commented in 2021: “Unless India intends to solely use the Agni-P for nuclear weapons delivery, this potentially leaves open the option that the new missile could be equipped, like some earlier variants of the Agni family with either conventional or nuclear warheads“.

India is likely to continue testing its nuclear-capable missiles amid China’s rapid military build-up and Beijing’s military assistance to Pakistan.

Team Maverick