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Agni ready for serial production and deployment

The Agni missile is ready for serial production and deployment, the Defence News, a weekly in the United States, quoting a senior scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation, has reported.

It said the scientist refused to disclose how many missiles will be manufactured and where they will be deployed.

The DRDO scientist said two variants of the missile - Agni-I with a range of 1,500 kilometres and Agni-II with a range of 2,500 kilometres - are now fully operational. They are designed, he said, to be deployed rapidly and that both versions will be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The unit cost of the Agni-I is about five million dollars and of Agni-II eight million dollars, the scientist said, adding both can carry a payload of 1,000 kilograms.

The DRDO scientist said that, at present, India has 10 Agni-I missiles and two prototypes of the Agni-II variety. He added that, if required, DRDO's missile research laboratory could produce, in collaboration with Bharat Dynamics Limited, up to 18 Agni-II missiles a year, according to the weekly.

The scientist said the government has increased funding for all indigenously developed missiles - from 500 million dollars in 1999 to 800 million dollars in 2000.

The weekly quoted an unnamed senior defence ministry official as saying that production of the Agni will begin in 2001. He said acceleration of the Agni project was part of the policy of maintaining minimum nuclear deterrence.

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