India tests Agni-IV missile with high accuracy
Tuesday November 15, 2011 02:56:56 PM,
IANS
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India's Agni-IV 3,500-km-range
strategic nuclear-capable ballistic missile blasting off from
Wheeler Island in Odisha on the east coast
(Photo: DRDO) |
Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: India Tuesday succeeded with a very high level of accuracy in its
first test of a new-generation Agni-IV strategic nuclear-capable
missile with a 3,500-km range from a defence base in Odisha, an
official said.
"The missile, which has the capability to hit targets over 3,000
km away, was tested from a facility off the state's coast in the
presence of senior defence officials," defence ministry
spokesperson Sitanshu Kar told IANS.
"The test was successful," he added.
The Agni-IV is a modified version of the Agni-II strategic missile
and was originally called Agni-II Prime.
"The successful launch of new generation strategic missile Agni-IV
that has a designed range of 3,500 km achieved all mission
parameters, which included a range of 3,000 km," Defence Research
Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told
IANS in New Delhi.
"Agni-II Prime has now been renamed Agni-IV," he added.
India's Agni-series missiles are one of the five projects of DRDO
under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)
launched in 1983 and concluded in 2008 after all its design
objectives were achieved.
However, India's IGMDP follow-on projects, such as Agni-IV and the
Sagarika submarine-launched ballistic missile, are continuing.
During Tuesday's test, the Agni-IV missile was launched from a
Road Mobile System at 9.00 a.m. from Wheelers' Island in the
Bhadrak district of Odisha on India's east coast, about 200 km
from Bhubaneswar.
The missile had a text-book trajectory and reached a height of
about 900 km and reached the pre-designated target in the
international waters of the Bay of Bengal, Integrated Test Range (ITR)
director S.P. Dash later said in a statement.
All mission objectives were fully met. All the systems functioned
perfectly till the end, encountering the re-entry temperatures of
over 3,000 degrees Celsius, Dash said.
This missile is one of its kind in the world, giving a quantum
leap in technology, he said.
"The missile system has opened a new era in the class of
long-range missile having capability to carry strategic warheads
for the forces and has provided a fantastic deterrence to the
country," he claimed.
The missile is lighter in weight and has two stages of solid
propulsion and a payload with re-entry heat shield. The composite
rocket motor which has been used for the first time had performed
excellently, the statement said.
The missile system is equipped with modern and compact avionics
with redundancy to provide high level of reliability, it said.
The high performance onboard computer with distributed avionics
architecture and high speed reliable communication bus and a full
digital control system controlled and guided the missile to the
target, the statement said.
All the radars and electro-optical systems along the coast tracked
and monitored all the parameters of the vehicle. Two Indian naval
ships located near the target witnessed the final tochdown.
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