Agni III ICBM ready for launch

Speaking at his first press conference today since he took office over a year ago, DRDO chief M Natarajan said, ‘‘All technical parameters for the launch of the missile have been completed. We are ready for a launch today.’’

Though an active programme can push India into the club of just five countries—the US, UK, Russia, France and China—who have operational arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range in excess of 5,000 km, that may just be some way off, given DRDO’s preoccupation with making the Agni project fully operational.

He also announced that the long-awaited 80-km range Astra beyond visual range (BVR) air combat missile would be test-fired for the first time early in April at the integrated test range in Orissa. The missile will give the IAF a much-needed combat deterrent especially since none of the country’s neighbouring air forces have BVR missiles.

While DRDO is busy developing air versions of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, the guided weapons programme is also building an ‘‘enhanced BrahMos’’ with a strike range of 1,000 km as a border deterrent.

But Natarajan refused to confirm DRDO’s development of a submarine-launched version of the BrahMos, a fact stated before by DRDO chief controller and BrahMos MD Sivathanu Pillai a year ago.