In a significant development, India successfully testfired the nuclear-capable strategic Agni Prime missile off the coast of Odisha with the capability to hit targets between 1,000 to 2,000 kms on Saturday. “India today successfully testfired the Agni Prime missile off the coast of Odisha in Balasore. Agni Prime is a new generation advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles. It is a canisterised missile with a range capability between 1,000 and 2,000 kms,” government officials told ANI.
A lot of new features have been added to the nuclear-capable strategic missile Agni Prime during this test. The missile test met all its mission objectives with a high level of accuracy, they said.
The last test of the Agni Prime missile was done on June 28 this year and the missile is nearing complete development and it is expected to be soon ready for operational induction into the strategic forces.
Congratulating the DRDO for the successful test-fire, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “The Agni P Missile has been successfully tested off the coast of Odisha. The flight test has proven the reliable performance of all the advanced technologies integrated into the system. Congratulations to Team @DRDO_India. The nation is proud of their achievements.”
The Agni P Missile has been successfully tested off the coast of Odisha.
The flight test has proven the reliable performance of all the advanced technologies integrated into the system.
Congratulations to Team @DRDO_India. The nation is proud of their achievements. pic.twitter.com/14CCwT6sG8
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) December 18, 2021
Later in the day, the Defence Minister said that the government is keen to make the country self-reliant in terms of defence equipment and is urging countries to come here and ‘make for India’ and and ‘make for world’. Addressing the 94th Annual General Body meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) today, Singh said that India wants to produce its defence equipment within the country and is keen that friendly countries like the US, Russia and France use India as the base for their manufacturing units.
Rajnath Singh also said that the size of India’s defence and aerospace manufacturing sector will increase to Rs. 1 lakh crore in 2022 and surge further to Rs.5 lakh crore by 2047, when the country will celebrate 100 years of independence, from around Rs.85,000 crore in the current year. He further said that by 2024-25, India would become a net exporter of defence products.
