India on Friday test fired its indigenously built nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-I missile from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast, about 200 km east of Bhubaneswar.
The missile, which has a range of 700 km and payload of one tonne, was test fired at 10.09 am by the armed forces. "It was a perfect test. The missile hit the target with 100% accuracy,” said MVKV Prasad, director, Integrated Test Range (ITR) of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) at Chandipur.
DRDO chief VK Saraswat and chief controller (missiles and strategic systems) Avinash Chander witnessed the test.
Already inducted in the Army, Agni-I was first test fired in January 25, 2002. Since then DRDO has conducted several trials of the missile. It is meant to bridge the gap between indigenously built short-range missile Prithvi and Agni-II that has a range of 2000 km.
The test of Agni-I comes after the successful launch of 5,000-km range Agni-V on April 19.