The Hindu Business Line : Agni III test-fired successfully

Hyderabad April 12 Agni-III, India's most strategic long-range ballistic missile, with the capability to carry both conventional and nuclear warheads, was successfully test fired today from Wheeler Island, off the coast of Orissa.

The success of the launch, in the second attempt, has put the country firmly on course, to gain entry into the exclusive club of half a dozen advanced nations, which can launch such intermediate range ballistic missiles that can hit targets beyond 3,000-3,500 km.

The US, Russia, the UK and France are the prominent nations in the club.

The two-stage Agni rocket was blasted at 10.52 a.m. and the missile zoomed into space.

It reached an altitude of 400 km in full 13 minutes from the take-off and made a perfect re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

"All mission objectives were met during its flight and our indigenous technologies and systems validated," said Mr Avinash Chander, Programme Director of Project Agni.

The fully indigenous, composite-bodied Agni-III weighs 48 tonnes, is 16 metres tall with a payload capacity of 1.5 tonnes. The countdown to the lift-off involved hours of checking and cross-checking nearly 200 parameters for the missile command.

The scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Union Minister of State for Defence, Mr M.M. Pallam Raju, the DRDO Chief, Mr M. Natarajan, top officers of the three defence services, witnessed the successful test firing.

Jubilant mood

The mood was one of jubilation on the island and at the control station for the nearly 250 DRDO scientists, engineers and support personnel, who have been toiling hard for over a month to ensure that all the systems and sub-systems of the surface-to-surface missile were in order.

"We are ready to take on bigger and bigger challenges in the missiles arena in which Agni-III success is a big booster dose," said Dr V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller (R&D), Missiles and Strategic Defence of the DRDO, echoing the feeling of the scientists there.

Implications

Summing up the implications of today's success, Dr Saraswat told Business Line over phone from the island, "It's a great achievement for the entire missile community of India and the aerospace industry in general as we have broken the barrier, migrating from medium range to long-range missiles, with high precision and accuracy of impact."

In defence preparedness terms, it means India can now be confident of attaining minimum nuclear deterrence.

By its reach, the missile can hit targets in most parts of the Asian continent and is strategic for the country's overall defence.

India's missile armoury would be more versatile with Agni-I reaching 700-800 km, Agni-II hitting targets up to 2,000 kms.

In addition, it has Prithvi, Nag, Akash, under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) in various stages of induction.

Less Cost

The DRDO officials say that the Indian missile development costs are less by a factor of two or one third compared to most of the advanced nations. A typical Agni-III missile development costs around Rs 10-12 crore.

Since the design has been proven and it appears like a `perfect system', the need for many tests might not be the case.

"We might go for a couple of more tests, before the missile gets inducted into the defence forces," Dr Saraswat said.

Many firsts

The Agni-III success has many firsts for indigenous missile technology development. It has validated the robust, light weight, composite material rocket motor casings developed by DRDO.

Second, it has proved the efficiency of flex nozzles, which are critical in helping change the direction of trajectory of the missile.

In the re-entry technology, which has been the toughest, the Agni missile has, once again proven that the technology has been mastered and the composite nose tip and missile body is able to withstand the high temperatures of between 2500-3000 degrees C.

The two-stage, solid propellant, inertial guidance and propulsion systems have come good this time.

The DRDO scientists also fixed a thermal protection in the missile system, which solved the problem encountered in the maiden, Agni-III flight on July 9, 2006, which resulted in a failure. A technical team conducted a detailed failure analysis.

"Due to certain interactions in the sub-systems, excess heat was generated causing a fire that was found to be the reason for the flight to nose-dive into the Bay of Bengal, just 70 seconds after lift-off," said Mr Avinash Chander, who is also the Director of the Hyderabad-based, Advanced Systems Laboratory, which pilots the Project Agni, the `pride' and most strategic project in the (IGMDP), launched in 1982-83.

More Stories on : Security | Science & Technology

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Thunderstorms relent as `low' veers off to south

Private life insurers upset over pension `exclusion'

RCom, BSNL bag bulk of rural cellular project

Air Sahara in Jet Air fold for Rs 1,450 cr

Lacunae in scheme of separation

Manufacturing pushes up industrial growth

ITC Hotels joins hands with Starwood

Mid-cap funds counting on private equity flow

R.S. Sharma leads race to head ONGC

Oil marketing cos irked over Reliance's LPG sale plan

Ballarpur Ind net rises 22% in Q3

Credit counselling for the urban spendthrift

Insourcing of chip design on the rise

20 bidders show interest in acquiring BSE stake

The Hindu featured as Superbrand

Agni III test-fired successfully