NEW DELHI: In a move to somewhat bridge the stark strategic imbalance with China in terms of nuclear and missile arsenals, India is all set to test its most ambitious missile Agni-III on Wednesday.
The countdown for the launch of Agni-III, designed to hit high-value targets deep inside China with a strike range of 3,500-km, has begun at the integrated test range on Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa.
"The test will be conducted on Wednesday morning if there are no last-minute hitches. The final checks for all the sub-systems in the complex 16.7-metre tall missile, with a lift-off weight of 48 tonnes and a warhead of 1.5 tonnes, have been completed," said an official.
A ballistic missile basically enters a free-flight zone after an initial powered flight, which in turn is finally followed by the re-entry phase where the missile re-enters the earth's atmosphere from stratosphere on its way to the target.
The Agni-III launch on Wednesday becomes important since it is the third time that the rail-mobile missile will be tested.
The missile's entire flight path will be tracked from ground stations at Dhamra, Balasore and Port Blair, as well as naval warships deployed in the Indian Ocean. The first test of the two-stage Agni-III in July 2006 had gone completely awry, with scientists losing control of the missile over the Bay of Bengal barely 65 seconds into its flight.
It was later established that the "recirculation of hot gases", with temperatures going up to 1000 degree Celsius, had caused damage to cables of the control system of the first-stage.
For the second test, on April 12 last year, the missile was fitted with a "flex nozzle control system" or a "flexible" heat shield to protect vital components and cables from the high temperatures generated by the missile's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
And it worked, with the entire flight of the missile "validating" all mission objectives. Agni-III, which has a velocity of 5,000 metres per second, is a totally new system from the 700-km-range Agni-I (12-tonne) and 2,500-km-range Agni-II (17-tonne) missiles inducted by the armed forces.
Technicalities apart, India needs an operational Agni-III missile as soon as possible since China already has a wide array of missiles, ranging from the fully-operational 8,500-km CSS-4 to the new 11,270-km DF-31A inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
China, as reported by TOI earlier, is also the only country in Asia to have SLBMs like JL-1 and the almost-ready JL-2, with a strike range in the region of 8,000 km. "Chinese missiles can target any major city in India. What we need is credible minimum deterrence against any Chinese misadventure. Agni-III will be a concrete step towards it," said an official.
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