The first user trial of the nuclear weapon capable surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile with a strike range of 4,000 km will be conducted at Wheeler Island off the Odisha Coast on December 2.
Preparations are in full swing for the trial, and the entire operation will be carried out by the Army’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) personnel as part of the pre-induction user trials, according to a top official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Normally, three to four such trials would be conducted by users before the overall induction of the missile into the SFC, he added.
So far, three developmental trials of Agni-IV have been successfully conducted by missile technologists of the DRDO, which developed the weapon system. The trials were held in November 2011, September 2012 and January 2014.
Top missile scientists are making pre-launch integration checks of the missile, which will be in “deliverable version”. In view of the longer range of the missile, deployment of radar, telemetry and electro-optical tracking systems will be spread wider along the east coast.
The 20-metre tall, two-stage solid-fuelled missile is capable of delivering a one-tonne nuclear warhead beyond a distance of 4,000 km. Its re-entry vehicle is equipped with heat shields to enable the payload withstand scorching temperatures of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius. The state-of-the-art ring laser gyro-based and the redundant MEMS-based navigation systems ensure high accuracy of the missile.
Meanwhile, DRDO missile scientists are gearing up to launch the first canister-based trial of the 5,000 km-plus Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, Agni-V in the last week of December. Explaining the advantages of canister launch, the official said it would provide a high-level of security and nobody would be able to meddle with it. It could also be made vertical and launched quickly without any attachments or detachments.
(EOM)
