Article Posted on : - May 17, 2010

India test-fires Nuclear-capable Agni-II missile

BALASORE, ORISSA (PTI): Nuclear-capable Agni-II missile, with a range of 2000 kms, was Monday successfully test-fired by the Indian Army as part of user trial from the Wheelers Island off Orissa coast.

The trial was conducted from a rail mobile system in Launch Complex-4 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 9.15 am, defence sources said soon after the versatile surface-to-surface missile blasted off.

Data relating to various parameters of the mission's objectives was being analysed, the sources said.

Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) has already been inducted into the services and Monday’s test was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army with logistic support from various laboratories and personnel of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

A DRDO scientist said it was a training exercise to familiarise the end-users with different operational conditions.

The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and a naval ship located near the impact point in the down range of Bay of Bengal.

The 20-metre long Agni-II is a two stage, solid-propelled ballistic missile. It has a launch weight of 17 tonnes and can carry a payload of 1000 kg over a distance of 2000 km.

Agni-II was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory along with other DRDO laboratories and integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad, the sources said.

The missile is part of the Agni series which includes Agni-I with a 700 km range and Agni-III with a 3,500 km range, they said, adding that Agni-I has already been inducted and Agni-III is in the process of induction.

The first trial of Agni-II was carried out on April 11, 1999. Though some of the subsequent trials were successful, the user trial conducted on May 19, 2009 and the first night trial on November 23, 2009 from Wheelers Island could not meet all the parameters, they added.