India test-fires nuclear capable Agni-II missile
India today successfully test-fired its medium-range nuclear-capable Agni-II missile with a strike range of more than 2,000 km from an island off the coast of Bay of Bengal in eastern state of Odisha.
The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 9:40am, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting defence officials.
Terming the test-fire of the state-of-the-art missile completely successful, ITR Director MVKV Prasad said "it was a user trial conducted by the army."
Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) has already been inducted into the defence services and today's test was carried out by the specially formed Strategic Forces Command of the Army as part of training exercise, the officials said.
The two-stage sophisticated missile equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation system, guided by a novel scheme of state of the earth command and control system was propelled by solid rocket propellant system, they said.
The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and naval ships located near the impact point in the down range area of the sea, said a DRDO scientist.
Agni-II is part of the series of missiles developed by DRDO which includes Agni-I with 700 km range, Agni-III with 3,000 km range, Agni-IV with 4,000 km range and Agni-V more than 5,000 km range, they said.
The last trial of Agni-II conducted on April 7, 2013 from the same base was a total success.
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