Agni-1(A1), the nuclear capable surface to surface missile was successfully test fired from the Wheeler Island off Dhamra village on the coast of Orissa on March 23 by Army unit.
Launched from the road mobile launcher at Integrated Test Range at Island, the missile attained its desired distance of 700 km range and showed its full operational capabilities by achieving all the qualification and requirement of the user.
A1 is developed by Advanced System of Laboratories (ASL), the premiere missile development Laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad and Research Center Imarat, Hyderabad and integrated by defence Public Sector Undertaking, Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad.
Avinash Chander, Programme Director of the project and Director, ASL said, “The terminal data tracked by two naval ships and total performance from the radars at the Interim Test Range (ITR) showed that the missile performed to its optimum capacity exactly as expected.”
He later summed up that the launch was satisfactory and everything went according to plan while accomplishing the mission’s objectives.
One of the important aspects of this successful launch was that it was totally executed by Army on its own as it is the user of the missile. Thus this launch is also a success story of the preparedness of the user in handling of the weapon.
Several of its systems like Explicit Guidance, Re-Entry structures, Avionics and Payload worked flawlessly.
Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller R&D (Missiles and Strategic Systems) congratulated the team members for their devoted and professional work and said that this success story will boost India’s strategic defence.
A.K. Antony, Defence Minister and MM Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence present during the launch while hailing the launch as a milestone in country’s preparedness in the area of strategic defence congratulated the scientists and the operations team of Strategic Force Command for scripting this special achievement.
Agni-1, which is 15 metre tall and weighs 12 tones, is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads of 1000 kg has already been introduced into Army.
The Agni project was launched in the 1980s and was first successfully test fired in 1989. The other two variants of Agni are Agni-2 with the range of 1,500 km and Agni-3 with 3,000 km.
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