AGNI-3 MISSILE

Agni-III is the third in the Agni series of missiles. Agni III uses solid propellant in both stages. Agni-III was tested on July 9, 2006 from Wheeler Island off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa. After the launch, it was reported that the second stage of the rocket did not separate and the missile had fallen well short of its target. Agni-III was again tested on April 12, 2007, this time successfully, again from Wheeler Island. On May 7, 2008 India again successfully test fired this missile. This was the third consecutive test; it validated the missile's operational readiness while extending the reach of India's nuclear deterrent to most high-value targets of the nation's most likely adversaries. Agni-III has a range of 3,500 km, and can take a warhead of 1.5 tonnes.It has been reported that the missile's circular error probable (CEP) lies in the range of 40 meters, This would make the Agni-III most accurate strategic ballistic missiles of its range class in the world.This is of special significance because a highly accurate ballistic missile increases the "kill efficiency" of the weapon; it allows Indian weapons designers to use smaller yield nuclear warheads (200 kiloton thermonuclear or boosted fission) while increasing the lethality of the strike. This permits India to deploy a much larger nuclear force using less fissile/fusion material (plutonium/lithium deuteride) than other nuclear powers. Older ballistic missiles, such as those deployed by earlier nuclear powers required larger yield (1-2 megaton) warheads to achieve the same level of lethality. It has also been reported that with smaller payloads, the Agni-III can hit strategic targets well beyond 3,500 km.

    

·                                                                                                                                                                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 by MVKV Prasad, the director of Integrated Test Range (ITR).