India successfully test fires "Agni-III nuclear capable" missile
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, April 12, IRNA
India-Missile Test-Agni
India Thursday successfully test fired its nuclear capable intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-III from the Interim Test Range(ITR) at the wheeler's Island in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.
The ingeniously developed surface-to-surface missile, blasted off at 1052 hours IST (Indian Standard Time) from a fixed platform with the help of an auto launcher in the Launch Complex-4 of the ITR, PTI reported here quoting Defence sources.
Fitted with an on-board computer, the missile was designed to go up to a distance of 90 km vertically crossing the atmosphere and re-enter into the earth targeting the predetermined impact point near Car Nicobar Island.
Agni-III becomes the missile with the longest reach in South Asia and more powerful than any missile in Pakistan's arsenal.
However, China has missiles with a longer reach than Agni-III.
With an improved guidance system, this latest variant of the Agni series of missiles, Agni-III had a diameter of 1.8 metres and length of 16 metres.
The missile, which weighed about 48 tonnes, was meant to support a wide range of warhead configurations with a total payload ranging between 600 kg and 1.8 ton and featured decoys and other anti- ballistic counter measures.
This is Agni-III's second trial, the earlier experiment on July 9, 2006 having gone awry.
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