Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulates DRDO for successful night trial of Agni-II

Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh on Sunday took to the social media platform of Twitter to congratulate the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The congratulatory tweet was in lieu of the first successful night trial of the surface to surface medium-range missile conducted by the DRDO. "The nation is proud of DRDO scientists," he said. 

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Rajnath Singh's tweet congratulating the DRDO 

DRDO successfully conducts the first-night trial

On the night of November 16, the DRDO had successfully conducted the first night trial of Agni-II. The Agni-II is a versatile surface-to-surface medium-range nuclear-capable missile. The missile was launched from Dr. Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha, according to the defence sources. The missile has a strike range of 2000 km, the defence source stated. A defence official said this was the first time that the sophisticated missile was test-fired at night.

 The 2000 plus km range surface to surface missile has already been inducted and is part of countries arsenal for strategic deterrence. It was launched as a regular exercise undertaken by the armed forces, he said. The test on November 16 was carried out by the specially formed Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army with logistic support from the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Agni-II was developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory along with other DRDO laboratories and integrated by the Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad, the sources said.

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Agni-II is part of the Agni series of missiles

Agni-II is part of the Agni series of missiles which includes 700-km range Agni-I, 3,000-km range Agni-III, Agni-IV and Agni-V. The first test-firing of the prototype of the Agni-II missile was carried out on April 11, 1999. On May 17, 2010, the trial of nuclear-capable Agni-II ballistic missile was conducted by the Special Strategic Command Force from the ITR before it was made operational by the Army. The last trial was conducted on February 20, 2018, from the same base.

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(INPUTS FROM PTI)