Times of India:
A user-trial of the Agni-II intermediate range nuclear-capable ballistic missile by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) failed on Thursday.
Sources said the test-firing of the surface-to-surface Agni-II missile, which has a range over 2,000-km, from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast flopped within minutes of its launch at about 10.20 am. “The two-stage, solid-fuelled missile was just half a kilometre into its initial flight trajectory when things went awry. The mission had to be aborted,” said a source.
The defence ministry and DRDO refused to comment on the unsuccessful test.
The Agni-I (700-km), Agni-II and Agni-III (3,000-km) missiles have already been inducted into the tri-Service SFC, which was created in 2003 to handle the country’s nuclear arsenal. But it will take another couple of years to make the Agni-IV (4000-km) and Agni-V (over 5,000-km), which are specially meant for nuclear deterrence against China, fully operational…
