Agni-III

Agni-III:

Agni-III is an intermediate-range ballistic missile developed by India as the successor to Agni-II.It has a range of 3,500 km- 5,000 km, and is capable of engaging targets deep inside neighbouring countries. The missile’s Circular error probable (CEP) is within 40 meters range, which makes it the most sophisticated and accurate ballistic missile of its range class in the world. In June 2011, it was reported that Agni-III has been inducted into the armed forces and is under production.

Agni III was developed as the successor to Agni-II. Designed by the Indian government's Defence Research and Development Organisation, Agni III is a two-stage ballistic missile that is capable of nuclear weapons delivery. It was designed and developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL),[citation needed] a unit of DRDO, which was formed in September 2001 with its main objective being the development of large-sized rocket motors. ASL developed the propulsion plant for solid-fuel motors, including the infrastructure for propellant casting. The stubby two-stage solid fuel missile is compact and small enough for easy mobility and flexible deployment on various surface/sub-surface platforms.

The missile is equipped with sophisticated navigation, guidance and control systems along with advanced on-board computer systems. The electronic systems are hardened for higher vibration, thermal and acoustic effects. A high performance indigenous ring laser gyro-based navigation system was flight-tested for the first time during the Agni-III trial on 7 Feb 2010.

The Agni-III has two stages with an overall diameter of two meters. Initially, the first stage mass was about 32 tonnes and 7.7 m long, the second stage mass was about 10 tonnes and 3.3 m long. The missile is likely to support a wide range of warhead configurations, with a 4,500 km range and a total payload weight of 2490 kg.

Whats new:

DRDO carried out extensive technological enhancement to enhance the performance and to reduce the weight of the Agni-III missile system and to achieve this the entire system was redesigned including the use of maraging steel and a composite motor rocket. The weight of the Agni-III missile has been reduced to 22 tonnes.