India fires off nuclear-capable strategic Agni Prime missile

India on Saturday successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable strategic Agni Prime missile off the coast of Odisha with the capability to hit targets between 1,000 to 2,000 km.

“India today successfully testfired the Agni Prime missile off the coast of Odisha in Balasore. Agni Prime is a new generation advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles. It is a canisterised missile with a range capability between 1,000 and 2,000 km,” government officials told ANI.

A lot of new features have been added to Agni Prime during the test which met all its mission objectives with a high level of accuracy, they said.

This was the second test of the Agni Prime missile. The test was conducted at 11 am off the APJ Abdul Kalam island in Balasore.

The last test of the missile was done on June 28 this year and the missile is nearing complete development and it is expected to be soon ready for operational induction into the strategic forces.

India is in the process of further strengthening its strategic missiles’ arsenal by adopting newer technologies and capabilities.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for the successful flight test and expressed his happiness over the system’s performance.

“Test carried out by DRDO at 11.06 am. Telemetry, radar, electro-optical stations and downrange ships positioned along eastern coast tracked and monitored missile trajectory and parameters. Missile followed textbook trajectory, meeting all mission objectives with high level of accuracy,” the DRDO stated.

The Agni-5 missile was also tested recently with success.