Mumbai: Indian army’s “nuclear-capable” Agni-III missile on Saturday failedits maiden night test launch and crashed into the sea shortly after launch.
The missile plunged into the sea after the first-stage separation and itwas launched from Abdul Kalam Island off India’s Odisha coast.
According to details, the missile traveled around 115 km into its initialflight trajectory when things went awry. It deviated from the flight pathforcing the mission team to terminate it midway.
The missile, which could carry both conventional and nuclear warheadsweighing up to 1.5 tonnes, had already been inducted in the inventory backin 2011.
Weapon systems produced in India usually suffer from low workmanship andsuffer from poor maintenance standards prevalent across the Indian military.
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The Agni-III ballistic missile is claimed by Indian military of having acapability of hauling conventional and nuclear warheads, weighing up to 1.5tonnes, to a reported range of more than 2,000kms.
Two other variants of the missile, Agni-I and Agni-II, have failed duringboth development and user trials in the past. Agni-II had failed to deliverdesired result during its first night trial in 2009.
