Agni-II successfully test-fired

After perfect trial of 'Shourya' and 'Prithvi-II', India today successfully test fired nuclear capable 'Agni-II' ballistic missile with a strike range of 2,000 km as part of user trial by armed forces from Wheeler Island off Orissa coast.

"The trial of Agni-II surface-to-surface missile, conducted from Launch complex-IV of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 0930 hrs, was successful meeting the mission objectives," ITR Director SP Dash said.

The indigenously built 'Agni-II', developed by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), has already been inducted into armed forces and forms part of India's arsenal for strategic deterrence, defence sources said.

"It was a hat-trick after successful trials of Shourya and Prithvi-II on September 24 and 26, 2011 respectively. The successful launch once again proved reliability of the medium range missile,"  DRDO spokesman and scientist Ravi Kumar Gupta said.

The missile was launched as a training exercise by the armed forces. The two stage missile equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation system, guided by a novel scheme of state-of-the-art command and control system was propelled by solid rocket propellant system, said another scientist.

The missile reached an apogee (peak altitude) of 220 km and hit the target. All radar, telemetry systems, ectopic system tracked and monitored all parameters throughout the trajectory. Two ships located near the target point have tracked the missile in final stage, a DRDO official said.

With this success story, India also is planning to test by next month "Agni-2 Prime", an advanced nuclear-capable ballistic missile with a strike range of around 3,000 km, defence sources said.

The 'Agni-2 Prime' has been developed by making some changes in the 'Agni-II' missile and will have the same size of boosters, but will have an extended range of 1,000 km, the sources said.

The two-stage solid fuel propelled 'Agni-II' missile, developed by Advanced System Laboratory (ASL) and other DRDO laboratories, has a length of 20 metres, diameter of one metre and weighs around 17 tonnes, they said.

It is equipped with a special navigation system to achieve high degree of accuracy. The system is also equipped with anti-ballistic defence counter measures. It can be transported both by rail and road, they said.

The last trial scheduled on August 29 this year was aborted due to some technical problem.

A user trial of the missile conducted on May 17 last year from the same base was, however, a success. VK Saraswat, Director General of DRDO, Avinash Chander, Programme Director and Air Marshal K J Mathews congratulated the scientists, DRDO personnel and members of armed forces for the successful trial of Agni-II.