India on Sunday successfully test fired the nuclear capable Agni-II strategic ballistic missile from Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district off Odisha coast.
The test of the surface-to-surface missile, which is capable of striking a range of more than 2,000 km, was performed 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 medium-range missile is equipped with an advanced high-accuracy navigation system and also has state-of-art command and control system. It is part of the Agni missiles developed by DRDO. It is a two-stage ballistic missile that uses solid propellants in both the systems.
The 20-metre long missile weighs about 17 tonnes and can carry a payload of 1,000 kg over a distance of 2,000 km. The strike range can be increased to 3,000 km if the payload is reduced. The Agni missile family has three deployed variants Agni-I (700 km range), Agni-II (2,000 Km strike range) and Agni-III (3,000 km strike range). Two other variants are under testing, while the sixth is under development.
Agni-II missile is fully operational and is part of the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army. Last time Agni-II was tested was on 9 August, 2012.
