Govt to hand over Agni missiles to Army

New Delhi, Sept 23: The government has decided to hand over short and medium range nuclear capable Agni missiles to the Army, which is raising two missile groups for the purpose.
"The government has cleared raising of these two Agni specific groups some time ago," a Defence Ministry spokesman said today.
The move is a step towards immediate operational deployment of these missiles.

Though financial sanction is yet to come through, the Army Headquarters has already earmarked manpower for raising two rocket groups.
One group will be called 334 Missile Group, which would be armed with 700 kms short range Agni I and 335 Missile Group, which would field the 1,500 kms Agni II missiles.

Sources say that the decision to hand over the Agni series of missiles to the Army had been taken as the newly-created Strategic Forces Command is yet to find its feet.
With government financial sanction yet to come, the Strategic Forces Command is still to be located.

The actual raising of these new units, for which Army has already earmarked manpower, is expected to begin near Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Bharat Dynamics, the manufacturers of these missiles, is located in Secunderabad.

The government has also cleared the raising of two new Prithvi groups for the Army, which would be named 444 and 555 missile groups. Army already has two Prithvi missile groups - 222 and 333 already deployed.

Bureau Report