India Fires Agni-5 Ballistic Missile from Mobile Launcher

India on Monday fired a home-grown nuclear-capable long range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, Agni 5 from a canister on a mobile launcher.

“Indigenous long range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni5, was successfully launched from a canister on a road mobile launcher at Dr Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, today, Indian Defense Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet Monday.

This was the third successful test for Agni-5 this year. It was test fired in January and June.  The missile with a range of 5000-5500 km range underwent its penultimate pre-induction test in June and was expected to be inducted by next year. It is being built by the Defence Research Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Advanced Systems Laboratory and it was assumed that the production for deployment would start after the final test

The missile will be inducted into the Strategic Forces Command for deployment; strategic missiles, Agni 1 to 4, with ranges from 700 km to 3,500 km, have already been deployed by the Strategic Forces Command, which controls India’s ballistic missile arsenal. SFC is also expected to test the missiles after induction.

The first test of Agni-5 was conducted on April 19, 2012, the second on September 15, 2013, the third on January 31, 2015 and the fourth on December 26, 2016. The fifth test was held on January 18. All the five trials were successful.