India Successfuly Test a 700 Km Range Agni 1 Ballistic Missile

Released on Sunday, March 23, 2008

Agni 1 (A1) missile, a strategic Surface-to-Surface missile, with a range capability of 700 km was successfully launched today at 10.15 hrs from Island Launch Complex off Dhamra, Orissa by Army unit. The missile had a textbook performance in terms of range, accuracy and lethality. A1 was developed by ASL, the premier missile development Laboratory of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad and Research Center Imarat, Hyderabad and integrated by defence Public Sector Undertaking, Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad. This has been an effort of consortium of DRDO labs viz. Vehicle Research & Development Establishment, Ahmednagar and Research & Development (Establishment), Interim Test Range, Chandipur and major public and private industries.

Shri Avinash Chander, Programme Director and Director, ASL said that the performance of all the subsystems of A1 viz., Explicit Guidance, Re-Entry structures, Avionics and Payload has been outstanding, confirming the robustness and maturity of Long Range Missile Technology in DRDO. It is a major milestone in the preparedness of Army unit in the strategic deployment of A1 system. Dr. V.K. Saraswat, CCR&D (MSS) participated in the launch and congratulated the team members for their dedicated and professional work towards achieving this success.

Shri A.K. Antony, Defence Minister and Shri MM Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence have congratulated the scientists and the operations team of Strategic Force Command for outstanding achievements and adding yet another milestone in the preparedness of the country in the area of strategic defence.