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New Delhi
Nine months after the first attempt failed, India will Thursday again test fire the indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-III ballistic missile that can hit targets as far as in China.

"The exact time will depend on weather conditions and other factors," an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed. We hope the test will proceed smoothly," the official added.

M.M. Pallam Raju, the minister of state for defence, M. Natarajan, who heads the Defence Research And Development Organisation (DRDO) that developed the missile, and senior military officials and scientists will witness the test firing of the 3,000-km range missile.

The test will be conducted from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 230 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar. The missile will soar aloft from launch complex No. 4 of Inner Wheeler Island, a new launch site at the ITR.

Agni-III was last tested on July 9, 2006 from the same base. After the launch, however, the second stage of the rocket had failed to separate and the missile plunged into the Bay of Bengal well short of its target.

DRDO scientists later attributed the failure to a "material-related fault", besides problems with the protective heat shield, design and propulsion.

Agni-III, one of the Agni series missiles, is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonnes, is 16 metres tall and weighs 48 tonnes.

Agni-I is a 750-800 km short-range missile. Agni-II has a range of more than 1,500 km. Both these have already been inducted in the armed forces.

While Agni-III is capable of reaching strategic targets deep inside China like Beijing and Shanghai, it, however, falls short of being an ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile) that have ranges over 5,000 km, a scientist pointed out.  

IANS | April 11, 2007

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