NEW DELHI: After having successfully launched the nuclear-capable intermediate range ballistic missile, Agni-III, from Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa on Thursday, scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have now set their sights on developing the technical capability for an inter-continental ballistic missile over the next three years.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister S. Natarajan said scientists would now work on squeezing in a third stage into the missile system so that the range was increased from the 3,000 km plus achieved on Thursday to 5,000 km [which is the range for an ICBM] over the next three years.

Whether India should go in for the development of an ICBM or not was a political decision, he said. The DRDO would work towards the goal of having the technical capability in the next three years for a missile with a range of 5,000 km and with the same payload of 1.5 tonnes achieved on Thursday.

The scientists, he said, would work on the goal alongside efforts to validate the Agni-III missile system.

There will be three more flights of Agni-III over the next two to three years to validate the system and while working on them, scientists would seek to build upon the capability and try and achieve the capability for a range of 5,000 km with the same payload.

Programme Director of the Agni-III mission and Director of the DRDO's Advanced Systems Laboratory Avinash Chander said that most of the components of the missile were produced by private industry with a view to reducing delays.

In all, 258 firms were involved in the project. Apart from 20 laboratories, several academic institutions were also engaged in it.

He said 85 per cent of the missile components were indigenously made.

The mission, he said, had established several firsts such as flex-nozzle controls of rocket motor during the powered phase, specially developed composite propellant with high specific impulse for the rocket, guidance and control with built-in fault tolerant avionics, and the ability to withstand the severe aero-thermal environment during the re-entry phase.

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