The Hindu : Front Page : Agni-1 launch successful

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Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Agni-1 launch successful

T.S. Subramanian

— Photo courtesy: Drdo

Agni-1 being launched off the Orissa coast on Friday.

CHENNAI: Surface-to-surface missile Agni-1 was launched successfully from the Outer Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast, on Friday morning. The single-stage missile, powered by solid propellants, reached its range of 700 km.

The missile raced into the sky at 10.35 a.m., climbed into space, re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and its dummy warhead impacted in the waters of the Bay of Bengal, about 700 km away from the launch site.

The guidance and re-entry systems worked well. The importance of the mission was that the Army, user of the missile, executed the entire launch operation. Agni-1 has already been inducted into the Army.

Avinash Chander, Mission Director for Friday’s launch, said from Outer Wheeler Island: “The entire launch operation sequence was carried out by the user and it went off well. The entire command chain has been validated in this test. The Army did it. This is a major step in the preparedness of the Army in using this weapon system. … We reached the full range capability of the missile.”

The command, operation, integration, execution and networking for the launch were done by the Army. “All these proved successful,” said Mr. Chander.

This is the fourth launch of Agni-1, which is 15 metres tall and weighs 12 tonnes. It can carry payloads weighing up to one tonne.

Agni-1, with its rail and road mobility and a range of 700 km, can target most cities in Pakistan without having to be launched from the border. The successful launch bolstered India’s “credible, minimum nuclear deterrent.”

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