India conducts successful test flight of Agni II Prime Missile

Balasore: India today successfully test fired the o-stage surface-to-surface Agni II Prime missile from Wheeler Island off Orissa coast.
The maiden test of Agni II Prime missile, which had failed due to a technical snag at the last moment in December last year, was test fired at 0900 hrs from the Wheeler Island, according to the Integrated Test Range(ITR) sources.Agni-II Prime is a two-stage surface-to-surface missile which would fill the gap in the ranges between Agni-II and Agni-III. While Agni-II can target 2,000 km far, Agni-III can travel a distance between 3,000 km to 3,500 km. All the three are strategic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Agni-II Prime, which is 20-mt-long and weighs 17 tonnes, can carry a warhead weighing 800 kg, Defence sources said. The first trial had failed during the lift-off following an abrupt snag in the control system of the first stage of the missile. The glitch zone had been rectified and the test flight of the missile was carried out today successfully. The success of the missile having a target 3,000 km would add another feather in the cap of Indian missile programme after the successful flights of Shourya, Prithivi-II and Agni-II missiles in
the last week of September this year.