5,000-km range Agni-5 to be test fired in February 2012

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 today.

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.