New Delhi: Buoyed by the successful test-
firing of the Agni-4, DRDO will launch the 5,000-km version of
the nuclear capable missile after three months as part of
strengthening India's deterrence capabilities.
"Agni-V is presently undergoing integration and we may
test fire it by the end of February next year. It is right on
schedule and the successful test of Agni-4 will prove to be a
building block in development of this missile," DRDO Chief V K
Saraswat said here on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference here, Saraswat talked about
India's missiles programme and developing effective deterrence
capability against adversaries.
Yesterday, DRDO had successful test fired nuclear capable
Agni-4 missile from a test range in Wheeler Island off Odisha
coast.
"Agni-4 belongs to DRDO's flagship programme to make the
country self-reliant in missile technology. We have now
graduated to a higher level of missile technology with more
capable versions of the earlier missiles such as Agni-1 and
Agni-2," he said.
Talking about Agni-4's capabilities, he said, "Earlier
missiles were based on rail mobile launchers which needed an
exhaustive infrastructure support. But Agni-4 is based on road
mobile launchers. It gives a much higher level of flexibility
and is a maintenance free system. It is better in terms of
accuracy and performance as well."
This missile is better than previous ones in various
parameters such as terminal accuracy, payload delivery
capability and also in terms of maintenance and flexible
operational deployment, he said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 15:28