India plans to conduct trial of Agni-I missile

India is preparing to conduct the first night trial of Agni-I ballistic missile from a defence base in Odisha, defence sources said Monday.

The indigenously developed surface to surface missile, which can strike a target over 700 km away, would be fired from Wheeler Island off the coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

The Strategic Forces Command will conduct the test as part of user trial with the help of the scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The preparations are on. If the weather condition remains conducive it could be fired Tuesday between 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., they said.

Agni which has already been inducted in the army uses solid propulsion booster and a liquid propulsion upper stage, derived from country's first indigenously developed ballistic missile Prithvi.

It was first tested from the same base Jan 25, 2002. Although several trials of the missile has been conducted since then, for the first time a night trial of Agni-I would be conducted to reconfirm its technological parameters.