New Delhi: The first-ever night firing of the Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) on Monday failed, admitted Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
DRDO is investigating the cause of the failure.
The nuclear capable missile was test-fired on Monday night from the Wheeler Island off Orissa coast.
Agni-II was test-fired from a mobile launcher intended to train the end-user, the Strategic Force Command of the Indian Army, to operate the missile in adverse conditions.
Even though the missile took-off smoothly and reported no glitch in the first stage separation, the missile appeared to have failed to meet the desired results mid-way at the second stage separation, DRDO sources said.
Strategic Forces Command conducted the test with necessary logistic support by various ITR laboratories and DRDO scientists.
The purpose of the test was to validate procedures for night firing.
The indigenous weapon is a two-stage solid propelled ballistic missile and has a weight of 17 tonnes and length of 20 metres. It can carry a payload of one tonne over a distance of 2,000 km.
Agni-II was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory along with other DRDO laboratories and integrated with Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Hyderabad with the private sector participating in a big way in its production.
The missile is part of the Agni series which included Agni-I (700 km range) and Agni-III (3,500 km range). Agni-I was already inducted and Agni-III is in the process of induction, the officials added.
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