India’s Agni-IV Ballistic Missile To Undergo User Trail Early Next Week

India will carry out first user trail of surface-to-surface nuclear tipped intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Agni-IV early next week, Indian Express newspaper reported today.

“Preparation is on full swing at the Wheeler Island test facility for the scheduled test likely to be conducted by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Indian Army on December 2. This is the second test of the missile in one year. Earlier, the missile was successfully test fired from the same test range on January 20,” the newspaper quoted unnamed Defence sources as saying

The user trail is aimed at measuring the performance of the subsystems and the armed forces’ readiness to employ the missile on their own.

Agni IV, the fourth variant of the Agni series developed indigenously has so far completed all developmental trails and is touted as the most advanced long range ballistic missile capable of being launched within minutes from a road mobile launcher.

The missile has a strike range of 4,000 km and is around 20 metres and weighs about 17 tonnes.

“Agni-IV is a modified version of the Agni-II strategic missile and was originally called Agni-II Prime whose test on December 10, 2010 had failed. The previous tests of Agni-IV were successful,” the sources said.