1st night trial of Agni II missile successful

Balasore : India on Saturdayconducted successfully the first night trial of 'Agni-II', itsversatile surface-to-surface medium range nuclear capable missile from Dr Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast, defencesources said.

The missile has a strike range of 2000 km, the sourcessaid soon after it blasted off from a mobile launcher at theLaunch Complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR), the sources said.

'Agni-II', an intermediate range ballistic missile(IRBM) has already been inducted into the armed forces. A defence official said this was the first time that the sophisticated missile was testfired at night.

The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked by abattery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observationstations, electro-optic instruments and two naval shipslocated near the impact point in the down range area of Bay ofBengal, DRDO sources said.

The 20-metre long two stage ballistic missile has alaunch weight of 17 tonnes and can carry a payload of 1000 kgover a distance of 2000 km, the sources said.

The two stage missile equipped with advanced highaccuracy navigation system, was guided by a novel state-of-the-art command and control system and propelled by solidrocket propellant system, the Defence official said.

The 2000 plus km range surface to surface missilehas already been inducted and is part of countries arsenal forstrategic deterrence. It was launched as a regular exerciseundertaken by the armed forces, he said.

Saturdays test was carried out by the speciallyformed Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army withlogistic support from the Defence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO).

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

'Agni-11' is part of the Agni series of missiles whichincludes Agni-I with a 700 km range, Agni-III with a 3,000 kmrange, Agni-IV and Agni-V both having long range capabilities.