The test was conducted from Wheeler's Island
in Bhadrak district, around 200 km from here,
at about 10.20 a.m. by army personnel as part
of routine user-trials, M.V.K.V. Prasad, director
of the Integrated Test Range, told IANS.
"The missile successfully hit the target.
It was a perfect launch" he said.
The medium-range missile with a range of over
2,000 km has already been inducted into the army,
and is part of the Strategic Forces arsenal for
nuclear deterrence. The Agni-II is part of India's
Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.
The two-stage surface-to-surface missile, equipped
with an advanced high-accuracy navigation system
and guided by a novel state-of-the-art command
and control system, is powered by a solid rocket
propellant system.
The missile weighs 17 tonnes and its range can
be increased to 3,000 km by reducing the payload.
It can be fired from both rail and road mobile
launchers. It takes only 15 minutes for the missile
to be readied for firing.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) first tested Agni-II in 1999.
However, the Indian Army's Strategic Forces Command,
which operates the missile, could test it only
May 17, 2010 after two successive failures in
2009.
The failed tests did not meet the mission's desired
objectives as, on both occasions, the missile
lost speed and deviated from its flight path.
Since then, it has been successfully tested several
times. The latest successful test once again proved
the reliability of the missile, the official said.
(IANS)
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