India successfully test-fired Medium Range Ballistic Missile Agni – II

India on 9 August 2012 successfully test-fired domestically built surface-to-surface two stage Agni-II ballistic missile. The missile was launched from a test range at Wheeler Island off Odisha coast. The nuclear capable missile with a strike range of 2000 km was first test fired on 11 April 1999. The missile was inducted in the Army on 17 May 2010.

The missile was launched by the strategic force command of Indian Army as a routine users’ trial. The objective of the launch was to train the user team to launch the missile. Agni-II is 20 metres long and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead weighing one ton.

Agni-II was developed under the joint work of advanced systems laboratory, the missile development laboratory of the DRDO, Defence Research Development Laboratory and Research Centre Imarat, while it was integrated by Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad.

The Agni-II missile belongs to the genre of medium range ballistic missiles developed by India under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. The missile was made operational by the Indian Army in March 2010.