AGNI-2 MISSILE

                                                               A G N I - 2   MISSILE


Agni-II with a range of 2,000--2,500 km is 20 meters  long , has a diameter of one meter , and weighs around 18 tonnes . Agni - II uses solid propellant in both of its two stages. They are claimed to be a part of the "credible deterrence" against enemies. India stated that its nuclear and missile development  programmes are not Pakistan-centric, that the Pakistani threat is only a marginal factor in New Delhi's security calculus, and that Agni is at the heart of deterrence in the larger context of Sino-Indian equation.The Strategic Forces Command, as a part of user trials, is to launch Agni-II on August 9, 2012 from the Wheeler Islands off the Orissa coast, after it successfully launched Agni-I missile on July 13, 2012.The 2000 km range nuclear weapon capable missile, already inducted into country's arsenal, was successfully launched as a training exercise by the armed forces on 9 August 2012.

·         The medium-range nuclear capable Agni-II missile, with a strike range of more than 2,000 km, was successfully test fired on Sunday from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast."The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted from a mobile launcher from the Launch Complex-4 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 10.20 am," defence sources said.

·         "Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) has already been inducted into the services and today's test was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army as part of training exercise with logistic support provided by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)," the sources said.

·         The two-stage missile equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation system, guided by a novel scheme of state of the earth command and control system was propelled by solid rocket propellant system, they said.

·         "The entire trajectory of the trial was 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.

·         The 20-metre long Agni-II is a two-stage, solid-propelled ballistic missile. It has launch weight of 17 tonnes and can carry a payload of 1,000 kg over a distance of 2,000 km.

·         The state-of-the-art Agni-II missile was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) and integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad.

·         Agni-II is part of the Agni series of missiles developed by DRDO which includes Agni-I with a 700 km range, Agni-III with a 3,000 km range, Agni-IV with 4,000 km range and Agni-V more than 5,000 km range.

 The last trial of Agni-II conducted on August 9 last year from the same base, was a total success."Today's test fire was successful. It met all the parameters. It was 100 per cent successful," said MVKV Prasad, the director of Integrated Test Range (ITR).