India on Tuesday successfully test-fired its nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-1, which has a strike range of over 700 km, from a facility off the Odisha coast. The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was launched as part of a periodic training activity by the Army’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) to consolidate operational readiness, the sources added. The SFC, part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), was set up in 2003 and handles management and administration of the country’s tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile. The state-of-the-art missile was launched around 8.30 am from a mobile launcher at Pad 4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at the Dr Abdul Kalam Island, formerly known as Wheeler Island, sources said. PTI reports that the trial was considered to be a “complete success”, as the mission objectives were met. “The trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and naval ships right from its launch till the missile hit the target area with pin point accuracy,” sources told PTI. Agni-I, which weighs around 12 tonnes and is 15-metre-long, can carry payloads up to 1,000 kg and is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. With PTI inputs
