New Delhi: India today test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a 3,500-kilometre range from an under-water pontoon, imitating a nuclear-armed submarine.

According to a tweet by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the India-made weapon system, codenamed K-4, was fired off the state’s coast.

The indigenously developed missile is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead deep inside enemy territory and will be the main weapon system of India’s first self-built nuclear-armed submarine INS Arihant.

The test had been planned by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for a very long time but happened only today.

The K-4, once validated on INS Arihant, will help India to possess a credible second-strike nuclear deterrent, completing the nuclear triad — the capability to fire nuclear-tipped missile from land, air and under-water.