Agni - III

Agni-III, the India’s long distance surface-to-surface missile, with capability to hit targets as far away as 3,000 km, with both conventional and nuclear warheads is ready for induction into the Defence forces.

The second consecutive flight success of the country’s most ambitious missile today has led confident missile scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), to declare that Agni-III was ready for the users to test and induct.

Today’s launch of Agni-III from the Wheeler Island, off the coast of Orissa at 09:56 hrs, was described by the DRDO as a complete success. The missile took off in textbook fashion, reached its desired height and travelled the distance.

The success is a testimony to the scientific expertise of Defence scientists and the rugged systems and parts manufactured to highest quality standards by the Indian industry.

Coming, coincidentally in the Golden Jubilee year of the DRDO, Agni-III would propel India into a select group of countries with IRBM (intermediate range ballistic missile) capabilities and adds yet another dimension to the national deterrence. It can effectively answer the threat perception from anywhere in the Asian continent, said Defence experts.

The DRDO now boasts of a missile reach of beyond 3,000 km to hit targets and also initial success in intercepting and destroying incoming enemy missiles, through the development of a Ballistic Missile Defence system.

It has already demonstrated Agni-1 (short range of 700 km), inducted into the Army and Agni-2 (range of 1,500 km), which has recently gone through user trials as well.

Describing the test, Dr Avinash Chander, Programme Director of Agni said, “The missile reached the pre-designated target in 800 seconds, travelling through a peak height of 350 km with a velocity of more than 4,000 metres/second. Two Indian Naval Ships positioned near the target location South of equator, have confirmed the impact of the missile”.

With this flight, the developmental flights of Agni-III are complete and the system is ready for induction, he declared immediately after the flight from Wheeler Island.

This is the third flight test in the series of Agni-III, which was carried out to establish the repeatability of missile performance. The first trial in July 2006 failed, while the second in April 2007, was a success. Defence experts, however, feel that a couple of more trials could be in order, for the long distance missile to be completely ready for manufacture and induction.

AGNI 3 missile, is a all composite material, two-stage solid propellant system with a length of 17 metres, diameter of 2 metres and launch weight of 50 tonnes, carries a payload of 1.5 tonnes. It is a rail mobile system capable of being launched from any where in India.

It is equipped with sophisticated navigation, guidance and control systems along with advanced distributed architecture based on board computer systems. Nearly 250 Indian industries are involved in India’s missile programme and more 70 in the Agni programme.

On the novelty of the present flight, Dr Avinash Chander said the high performance indigenous ring laser gyro-based navigation system has been flight tested for the first time in AGNI missile systems.

The missile was tracked by various telemetry stations, electro optic systems and radars located along the coast, Port Blair and by the downrange ships positioned near the target location. The data from the various stations is transmitted in real time through an advanced communication network of DRDO for online performance evaluation and range safety, a DRDO press release stated.

The launch was witnessed by Mr M. Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Mr Sundaram Krishnan, Advisor to the Defence Minister, Dr V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller (R&D) and other senior officials of the forces. The Defence Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, congratulated the Mission Director and all the scientists of DRDO for the successful launch of Agni-III, the DRDO release added.