Balasore: On Monday, India test-fired its indigenously developed intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear capable ballistic missile ‘Agni-5’ from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.
Solid propellant missile with three stage was test-fired from a mobile launcher from the launch complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR).
The surface-to-surface missile, Agni-5, is capable of striking a target more than 5,000 km. It is about 17-metre long, 2-metre wide and has launch weight of around 50 tonnes. The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne.
Unlike other missiles of Agni series, the latest one ‘Agni-5’ is the most advanced having some new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.
Lot of new technologies developed were successfully tested in the first Agni-5 trial. The redundant navigation systems, very high accuracy Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and the most modern and accurate Micro Navigation System (MINS) had ensured the Missile reach the target point within few metres of accuracy.
An official said that the high-speed on board computer and fault tolerant software along with robust and reliable bus guided the missile flawlessly.
At present, India has in its armoury of Agni series, Agni-1 with 700 km range, Agni-2 with 2,000 km range, Agni-3 and Agni-4 with with 2,500 km to more than 3500 km range.
As per the sources that Agni-5 will be inducted into the services after the some more trials.
