India successfully test fires n-capable Agni-I missile

India Thursday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed, nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Agni-I missile from a military base in Odisha, a defence official said.

The missile, which can strike a target 700 km away and can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead, was tested by the armed forces as part of user trial from a facility on Wheeler Island near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

"It was a perfect launch," director of the test range M.V.K.V. Prasad told IANS.

"The trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and naval ships from its launch till the missile hit the target area with pin point accuracy," an official statement from defence ministry said.

Agni is an intermediate range ballistic missile. It uses solid propulsion booster and a liquid propulsion upper stage, derived from India's first indigenously developed ballistic missile Prithvi.

The test was done by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), also called Strategic Nuclear Command.

A part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), the SFC is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile.

The launch was undertaken as part of periodic training activity by the SFC to further consolidate operational readiness.