Agni-II Strategic Ballistic Missile Test Fired Successfully
Fire Power: Agni-II Strategic Ballistic Missile Test Fired Successfully
India successfully test fired the nuclear capable Agni-II strategic ballistic missile on 9th November 2014. The missile was test fired from Wheeler Island in Odisha and the test was successful. This missile has been inducted in the army. The test was part of the training exercise for the Army with logistical support provided by the DRDO or Defence Research and Development Organisation. Agni-II is a medium range missile. It has a surface area of over 2000 km and it is also equipped to carry a 1000 kg payload. It is a 2 stage surface-to-surface missile which has an advanced high accuracy navigation system. It also has excellent technologies in the form of a command and control system powered by solid rocket propellant systems.
The weight of Agni-II is 17 tonnes and the range of the missile can be increased to 3000 km through reduction of the payload. The missile can be fired from land (rail as well as road)mobile launchers. The missile can be ready for firing in as little as 15 minutes. The Agni-II missile was developed by the ASL or Advanced Systems Laboratory.
It was integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited or BDL from Hyderabad. Agni II is part of a series of missiles being developed by the DRDO. Agni III and IV will follow with ranges of 3000 and 4000 km. Agni V will have more than 5000 km range. Agni I has a range of 700 km.
Agni-II is special because it is a medium range nuclear capable missile with a strike range of 2000 km. The successful user trial had been conducted by the army. The “trial of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted from a mobile launcher from the Launch Complex-4 of Integrated Test Range at around 9:40am," defence officials were quoted as saying. The state-of-the-art missile was described as fully successful by ITR Director MVKV Prasad who said "It was a user trial conducted by the army,” as quoted in Hindustan Times.
Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile has been inducted into services and the test was carried out by a specially formed Strategic Forces Command of the Army as per the training exercise with logistic support provided by the DRDO.
This is a 2 stage missile which has a highly accurate navigation system and it is propelled by a solid rocket propellant system. "The entire trajectory of the trial 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, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.
The Hindu reports that the missile hit the impact point in the Bay of Bengal with a two digit accuracy. The missile was fired around 9:40 am on Sunday. The missile was fired by the personnel of the Strategic Forced Command from a mobile launcher. Agni II is 20 metres tall and it zoomed to an altitude of 600 km and commenced the descent following which it hit the Bay of Bengal with extreme precision, the Hindu reported.
The two stage missile has been developed for military use. “It is an achievement by itself. Demonstrating it repeatedly gives a lot of confidence,” a defence official said, in a report by the Hindu.
