Article Posted on : - Aug 10, 2010

The 3000 km range surface-to-surface nuclear capable Agni-III missile.

NEW DELHI (PTI): After the Agni-I and Agni-II surface-to-surface missiles, the 3000-km range Agni-III missile is ready for being inducted into the service, Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

"700 km range Agni-I and 2000 km range Agni-II have been developed and inducted into service. Agni-III with a range of 3000 km is ready for induction," Defence Minister A K Antony said in reply to a question.

He said the third generation Nag anti-tank missile's user trials have been successfully conducted and the system is ready for induction into the production phase.

On the Indo-Israeli joint venture Medium range Surface to Air Missile (MR-SAM) programme, the Minister said pre-tender briefing of all prospective vendors has been carried out.

Antony said the first flight test of the jointly developed Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM) with Israel was done in May this year.

Answering another query, he said the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has accepted the proposal for procuring 42 more Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft from Russia at an estimated cost of Rs 20107.40 crore and they are planned to be delivered between 2014 and 2018.