DRDO to Conduct More Test Trials of Agni-III Missile

DDI Indian Government news, Undaunted by the partial failure of test-firing of the country's most powerful and longer reach 3,500 km range Agni-III missile, Defence Research and Development Organisation scientists said more trials of the IRBM missile would be conducted in months ahead to make it fool-proof. 
 
“It was our first experiment with such a long range missile and in the next few days, we will analyse faults in order to rectify them,” the scientists told reporters. They said the entire data of the testing of the missile from its launch to a snag developing in the second stage was being analysed and “we are hopeful of rectifying it”. 
 
When the missile veered off course, the scientist had been closely monitoring the trajectory of the missile, they said. 
 
Prior to the launch of the missile, DRDO scientists had carried out cold sea bed trials of critical components and subsistence of missile and this would enable pinpointing of the snag. “We will have to carry out more tests of the missile in the coming months,” the scientists said. 
 
According to defence sources, the launch of the nuclear-capable missile, designed to hit targets at a distance of 3,500 km, from the integrated test range at Wheeler Island was “successful” but its second stage did not separate and it fell into the sea. 
 
They said the missile went up vertically to a height of about 12 km before the snag developed. The sources attributed the problem to a “design failure”. 
 
The surface-to-surface missile had blasted off from a fixed platform as Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and top defence scientists looked on. 
 
This was the first launch of the Agni-III, the most sophisticated product of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme that started in 1983. 
 
The testing of the missile has been repeatedly put off since November 2004 for a variety of reasons, including once for technical problems.