Indian Army Tests Agni-III Ballistic Missile

Indian Army test-fired a surface-to-surface intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Agni-III from a defence test facility off Odisha coast today, as part of its user training exercise.

Defence sources told The Indian Express that the indigenously built highly sophisticated missile blasted off from a mobile launcher at the launching complex–IV of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island at about 09.15 am Thursday.

“The trial has met all mission objectives and all the events have occurred as expected. Terminal phase events were recorded by down range ship deployed near the impact point. The test once again proved the reliability of the state-of-the-art technologies and readiness of the user to launch it,” said an official.

The nuclear-capable Agni-III took off vertically into space and re-entered the atmosphere after attaining a height of nearly 500 km. The missile reached the pre-defined target with an accuracy of less than 100m upon its launch. The missile equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and advanced on board computer, has the latest features to correct and guide in-flight disturbances.