Night trial of Agni-I missile put off

[SpArK]

Night trial of Agni-I missile put off

Thursday, February 20, 2014, 12:59

Bhubaneswar: The first night trial of Agni-I ballistic missile has been postponed indefinitely for the second time, a defence official said on Thursday.

The missile was to be tested for the first time for night launch on Tuesday by the Strategic Forces Command as part of user trial from the Wheeler Island off the coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district in Odisha, 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

But it was put off for a day initially for some technical glitches. It was again deferred indefinitely as the glitches persisted.

The glitches "will be analysed. The next launch would be decided later. It may take some more time because there are other missions immediately. After we finish the scheduled missions, we will come back to this," the official told a news agency.

The Agni, which has already been inducted in the Army, uses solid propulsion booster and a liquid propulsion upper stage, derived from country's first indigenously developed ballistic missile Prithvi.

It was first tested from the same base on January 25, 2002. Although several trials of the missile has been conducted since then, for the first time a night trial of Agni-I was planned to reconfirm its technological parameters.

The official said preparation was underway to carry out multiple tests of medium-range Akash missile from the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur (ITR) in the costal district of Balasore, about 230 km from Bhubaneswar within the next fortnight.

One test is likely to be carried out on Friday, he said.

The 700-kg indigenously developed Akash all-weather surface-to-air missile has a range of about 27 km and can carry a 60-kg warhead. It can fly at a speed of up to Mach 2.5 and climb up to an altitude of 18 km. It can operate autonomously, and engage and neutralise different aerial targets simultaneously.

It can be launched from static or mobile platforms providing the armed forces flexible deployment.


IANS

First Published: Thursday, February 20, 2014, 12:59


Night trial of Agni-I missile put off

 

[saikumar]

sad news

 

[npm]

What is the use if we can't test it at will. This is stupid every time a missile needs to be tested we hear scientists from DRDO are helping. War doesn't always start on a bright sunny day. These should be designed so that they are all weather sustainable. You decide to test one now and after 5 min you should have the test result not wait day and years as to what to do and how to do a task.

-NPM

 

[trident2010]

fix it and do it properly .. not gonna nuke any one soon

 

[The Deterrent]

What is the use if we can't test it at will. This is stupid every time a missile needs to be tested we hear scientists from DRDO are helping. War doesn't always start on a bright sunny day. These should be designed so that they are all weather sustainable. You decide to test one now and after 5 min you should have the test result not wait day and years as to what to do and how to do a task.

-NPM

"User Trials" are usually not completely conducted by SFC personnel, there is involvement of the organization (DRDO) to some extent. They need to verify technical parameters from telemetry, for which perfect weather conditions and functionality of the missile is necessary.
Since this is a night-time test, it is important to both DRDO (from the testing point of view) and the SFC (from the training point of view). The systems indeed are all-weather, and usually independent user trials are conducted in field exercises (like Pakistani ASFC launched Ghaznai and Shaheen-I SRBMs at the conclusion of a military exercise, from the exercise range in 2010).

 

[kurup]

What Went Wrong with Agni-I Missile?

Postponement of first night trial of nuke capable ballistic missile Agni-I following technical snags in the system raised eyebrows of many. Defence experts pointed fingers at the faults in the inertial navigation system (INS).

After an abortive mission on Tuesday, the 700-km range missile was ready for the test from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast on Wednesday evening. But the officials of the strategic forces command (SFC) were forced to put off the test for indefinite period reportedly due to some technical glitches in the missile system.

The test was considered ‘very crucial’ as it was supposed to give a technical push to the country’s defence programme and prove the capability of launching the missile from any terrain anytime.

Defence sources said the snag was detected a few seconds prior to the take off. “The countdown was going on smoothly, but the system shut down 18 seconds prior to take off,” said an official.

DRDO and Army authorities, however, declined to divulge the details about postponing the mission. “The test was deferred due to a technical snag. Work is on to rectify it and hopefully the test will be conducted soon,” an official told this paper on condition of anonymity.

Defence experts claimed the missile system developed snags whenever an Indian INS was used on it. “It flies well with the Russian INS, but the Army has been insisting DRDO to use the Indian system and prove its reliability,” they said.

However, it was not for the first time that the faults were detected in Agni missile. On August 29, 2011 defence authorities had to put off a user trial of 2000-km range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-II for an indefinite period.

Defence experts have criticised the DRDO for the recurring failures. They said the faults are chronic and the scientists seem to have failed to rectify it permanently. “If the missile behaves like this during user trials, what will happen during the time of crisis? Can we afford to hold the country into ransom security-wise?”

Agni-I missile, which has a length of 15 meters, a diameter of one meter and weight 12 tonnes, can carry a payload of around 1000 kg. This missile has been developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) and some other DRDO laboratories.

What Went Wrong with Agni-I Missile? | idrw.org

 

[npm]

"User Trials" are usually not completely conducted by SFC personnel, there is involvement of the organization (DRDO) to some extent. They need to verify technical parameters from telemetry, for which perfect weather conditions and functionality of the missile is necessary.
Since this is a night-time test, it is important to both DRDO (from the testing point of view) and the SFC (from the training point of view). The systems indeed are all-weather, and usually independent user trials are conducted in field exercises (like Pakistani ASFC launched Ghaznai and Shaheen-I SRBMs at the conclusion of a military exercise, from the exercise range in 2010).

I believe we already have validated the required parameters when everything is fine. This is precisely why we need to validate now during bad conditions and identify the problem which arise and rectify them. If we don't have systems which capture such data during extreme conditions then I believe we nee to invest in such systems. Will help in other missile validations too

-NPM