BALASORE:In a step towards strengthening its power projection in South East Asia region, India on Thursday successfully testfired surface-to-surface intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-III from a defence test facility off the Odisha coast.
Defence sources said the indigenously built missile blasted off from a fixed platform of Launching Complex-IV with the help of an auto-launcher at Wheeler Island at about 9.55 am. While the test was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command of Army, Defence Research and Development Organisation provided logistic support. Director of Integrated Test Range MVKV Prasad said the trial was conducted as part of its user training exercise.
“The flight trial has met all mission objectives and all the events have occurred as expected. Terminal phase events were recorded by down range ship deployed near the impact point. The test once again proved the reliability of the state-of-the-art technologies,” he said.
It was seventh test of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile and third user trialwhich was conducted for a lesser range. The missile used in the test was picked up randomly from the production lot. Launched from the mobile launcher, it reached the pre-defined target in about 20 minutes with an accuracy of less than 100 meter.