India’s SFC and DRDO to Investigate Agni-III Missile Failure

On 30^th November 2019, a routine user trial of an Agni-III missile, conducted by the Indian Strategic Forces Command, ended in failure. This has prompted an investigation to be initiated with the SFC and the development agency, DRDO, working in concert.

After a failed test in 2006, the Agni-III completed the standard Indian series of three consecutive successful technical trials on 12^th April 2007, 7^th May 2008 and 7^th February 2010. Induction into the SFC began shortly thereafter and the weapon is in service.

Thereafter, the SFC conducted user trials of the system on 21^st September 2012, 23^rd December 2013, 16^th April 2015 with the last being on April 27^th 2017. The system has thus had seven successful tests with two failures.

Like the Agni-II, which was recently, and successfully tested,  a CEP in the “two-digit” range (40m being suggested) is claimed for the Agni-III. The Agni-III has a stated range of more than 3500km, but it bears a striking resemblance to the Soviet-era SS-20 IRBM, leading to the possibility that the range of the Agni-III could be as high as 5000km.