India’s strategic, ballistic missile, Agni-IV, will be flight-tested from a road-mobile launcher on the Abdul Kalam Island (earlier called Wheeler Island), off Damra village on the Odisha coast, on Monday.
The tri-Services’ Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which is entrusted with India’s nuclear weapons, will fire the missile.
Agni-IV is a two-stage, surface-to-surface missile that is 20 metres long and weighs 17 tonnes.
It can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead over a distance of 4,000 km. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) designed and developed the missile.
Successful launches
Five earlier launches of Agni-IV in 2011, 2012, 2014 (two test-flights) and 2015 were successful in a row. The Army has already deployed the missile. It was earlier called Agni Prime.
The DRDO successfully test-fired Agni-V, with a range of more than 5,000 km from a canister mounted on a road-mobile launcher on the Abdul Kalam Island on December 26, 2016.
