BHUBANESWAR: The Indian army successfully flight-tested short-range ballistic missile Agni-I from a defence facility off the Odisha coast revalidating its operational and technical parameters on Thursday evening.
Defence sources said the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the armed forces carried out the test of the strategic missile in full operational configurations as part of a user training exercise from APJ Abdul Kalam Island.
The missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher with logistics support from DRDO. The missile randomly selected from a bunch of missiles in the production lot was used in the user trial.
"Training launch of short-range ballistic missile Agni-I was carried out successfully. The user training launch successfully validated all operational and technical parameters," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (lGMDP) of DRDO, Agni-I missile is a proven system, capable of striking targets with a very high degree of accuracy. Of the six missiles in the Agni series so far, five have been deployed.
While Agni-I has a range of 700 km, Agni-V can strike targets more than 5000 km away. The range of Agni Prime, Agni-II, Agni-III and Agni-IV is 1500 km, 2000 km, 3500 km and 4000 km respectively.
Defence sources said there were considerable improvements in its re-entry technology and manoeuvrability since Agni-I's first trial. As the missile has already been inducted into the army, the test reconfirmed the technical parameters set for the user.
Compared to its longer-range cousins, its height is just 15 metres and the missile is powered by both solid and liquid propellants, which impart it a speed of 2.5 km per second. The missile weighs around 12 tonne and can carry both conventional and nuclear payloads of about 1000 kg.
The first-night trial conducted for its full range of 700 km was successful in 2014 after two failed attempts due to technical glitches. Several improvements have been made in the missile system since then.