India successfully test fire Agni I missile

BHUBANESWAR: India on Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Agni-I missile from a test range at Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.

The surface to surface missile, capable of targeting a distance of 700 km, was test fired from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) test at about 10.02 am as part of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) training exercise.

The trial was “part of the training exercise by the Strategic Forces Command of the Indian Army”, defence sources said, noting it was a “perfect launch”.

“The exercise was conducted in a perfect manner, and the trial was successful,” they said.

The trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars installed at various places, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and naval ships.

The missile is 15 meters and powered by solid and liquid propellants at a speed of 2.5 km per seconds.

Agni-I missile has already been inducted into the armed forces.

The Agni-I missile is equipped with a sophisticated navigation system which ensures it reaches the target with a high degree of accuracy and precision.

The missile weighs around 12 tonnes and can carry both conventional and nuclear payload of about 1000 kg. It was first launched on January 25, 2002, and can be fired from road and rail mobile launchers.

Agni-I has been developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory, the premier missile development laboratory of DRDO in collaboration with Defence Research Development Laboratory and Research Centre Imarat and integrated by Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Hyderabad.

The last trial of Agni-I conducted in Sep last year from the same base was also successful.