ndia on Wednesday successfully test-fired its 3000 km range surface-to-surface nuclear capable Agni-III missile for the second time giving the country a capability to hit targets as far as deep inside China.
The all solid fuel missile took off from Wheelers Island off Orissa coast at 09:56 hrs and achieved its full range and accuracy by reaching its pre-designated target in 800 seconds.
"The missile is now ready for induction," jubilant DRDO scientists told reporters after the missile achieved its target in a copy-book style.
With this second successful test-firing, India now joins a select group of nations having intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) with ranges upto 3000 kms. The missile will give the nation the capability to target cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai.
It was a sort of golden jubilee gift of the DRDO to the nation as the organisation is about to launch from Monday celebrations to commemorate 50 years of its existence. The success of Agni-III paves the way for India to build its truly intercontinental range missiles Agni-IV with a range of 5000 kms in the near future.
A miniaturised submarine-launched version of the Agni-III called Agni-III SL is also being developed and could be test-fired shortly.
Unlike Agni-I and Agni-II, the Agni-III missile has been designed and optimised to carry lighter 200 KT thermo nuclear pay-load weapons.
The third stage booster being installed for the future Agni range of missiles will give them capability of hitting targets at longer distances fairly accurately.
"The missile reached the pre-designated target in a time of 800 seconds, travelling through a peak height of 350 kms with a velocity of more than 4000 mts a second," Avinash Chander, Director of the Agni Project, told reporters here.
He said, "All the sub-systems of the missile functioned in a copy book manner giving an outstanding integrated performance of the missile in terms of range and accuracy."
For the first time, the missile scientists flight-tested high performance indigenous Ring Laser Gyro based navigation system in the Agni range of missiles. So far the DRDO has been using Strap-dowm Inertial Navigation Systems.
With the revival of the Indo-Russian GLONASS project, which will be in orbit by 2010, Indian missiles are expected to have more precision.
Two Indian naval warships positioned near the target location, South of Equator, confirmed the impact of the missile. This was the third test-flight of the missile.
The intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) was test-fired from a Rail-mobile launcher from the launch complex (LC-4) of the integrated test range. The A3 Rail Mobile System is capable of launching the missile from anywhere in India.
Agni-III is a two stage solid propellant system with a length of 17 mts, diameter of 2 mts and launch weight of 50 tonnes with a capability of carrying a pay-load of 1.5 tonnes.
The missiles re-enters into the atmosphere with a very high velocity and experiences a de-celeration of more than 35 g and a temperature of more than 2500 degree Celsius, but the pay-load is protected by all carbon composite heat sheet.
Chander, the Project Director, declared the Agni-III flight-test a "complete success and having met all mission objectives."
The missile systems is equipped with sophisticated navigation, guidance and controlled systems along with advanced distributed architecture based on-board computer systems. The missile has an electronic system which are hardened for higher vibration, thermal and acoustic effects.
Defence Minister A K Antony congratulated the Mission Director and all the scientist of DRDO for the successful launch of the missile.
The launch was witnessed by M Natarajan, Scientific Advisor, Shekhar Dutt, Deputy National Security Advisor and other senior officials of the Forces.
The test of the missile comes in the backdrop of spy satellites showing China possessing five nuclear submarines equipped with long-range nuclear tipped missiles which are located at Sanya Island in the southern tip of Hanian Island off the South-China sea.
Though the defence Ministry is tight-lipped about India's nuclear deterrent assets, international strategic study groups estimate that India currently has 18-36 Agni-II, IRBMS with a range of 3500 kms, 8-16 missiles of Agni-I, MRBM with a range of 900 kms.
Besides this, India is supposed to have in operation 150-180 short range surface-to-surface Prithvi missiles with a strike range of upto 330 kms.
Weighing about 48 tonnes, the Agni-3 missile was first test-fired on July 9, 2006 but it failed to meet its mission objectives due to cascaded failure of booster flex nozzle controller.
However, during the second test conducted on April 12, 2007, the entire flight path of 15 minutes duration validated all mission objectives, DRDO scientists said.
Though defence scientists had planned more than three tests of the missile before its induction but after today's copy-book launch, they said that the missile is ready for induction.
Source
eccan Hearld
