*New Delhi:* Indian nuclear missile programme faces the worst blow,exposing Indian Military capabilities against Pakistan and China.
In a major setback, the first night trial of the 3,500 km rangenuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-III, carried out by the StrategicForces Command, the tri-service unit that oversees operations and securityof nuclear weapons, failed after being tested at a defence base off theOdisha coast Saturday evening.
Officials are now studying the reasons for the failure of the missile thathas been inducted into the Indian military.
“We will have to analyse all information gathered to really say whathappened,” a top government official told ThePrint when asked why the testfailed.
This was the first night test of the missile, capable of carrying bothconventional and nuclear warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonnes; a successfultest would have validated the technical parameters set for the user and itsreadiness to handle the weapon during night hours.
As in all tests carried out by the user, the test missile was randomlypicked from the lot it has been equipped with.
While the Strategic Force Command (SFC) conducted the trial as part of itstraining, the DRDO provided logistic support.
*The New Indian Express* reportedlinkthatthe missile “tumbled” into the sea after first phase separation.
“The missile travelled around 115 km into its initial flight trajectorywhen things went awry. It deviated from the flight path forcing the missionteam to terminate it midway,” the daily said quoting sources.
It added that the flight trajectory of the missile was set for nearly 2,800km.——————————*‘Manufacturing defects may have caused failure’*
Read Top Stories
The surface-to-surface missile carrying a dummy payload blasted off from anauto-launcher at the Abdul Kalam Island in full operational configurationat about 7.15 pm Saturday.
Though the exact fault behind the ‘failure’ is yet to be established, thedaily said preliminary investigations attributed it to manufacturingdefects.
“Starting from the launch to the first phase separation, everything wassmooth in accordance with the mission plan,” a source said. “But suddenlyit started behaving abnormally. It could be possibly due to metallurgicaldefects.”
While developmental trials of missiles are expected, the failure of anuclear missile already inducted into the military is a concern.
Incidentally, the first test of the Agni-III in 2007 had failed, but it wasstill in developmental phase back then.
Agni-III missile is equipped with advanced high accuracy navigation systemand is guided by what the DRDO says is an innovative guidance scheme.
When the SFC had carried out a successful test of the missile in 2013, anofficial statementlink from thegovernment had said, “Such successful training launches clearly indicateour operational readiness to meet any eventuality as also establishes thereliability of this deterrent component of India’s Strategic arsenal”, ThePrint has reported.
