Hemant Kumar Rout By

India once again failed in its much-hyped Agni Pariksha. After an abortive mission on Tuesday, the proposed night trial of 700-plus km range Agni-I was postponed for indefinite period reportedly due to technical glitches in the missile system on Wednesday.

In 2009, such an attempt to fire 2000-km range Agni-II had ended in a failure as the missile developed snags during second phase separation and deviated from its coordinated path before plunging down in the sea.

Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Indian Army was to test fire the missile at about 8.15 pm. A reliable source told ‘The Express’ that the countdown was stopped at 18 seconds as the missile system encountered severe technical problems.

While the DRDO bosses are tight-lipped about the cause of the system failure, the source attributed it to the snags in the inertial navigation system (INS). “The missile system automatically got shut down when the countdown reached at 18 seconds,” the source informed.

On Tuesday too, the countdown was stopped at 8 seconds. Though the technical snags were later rectified, another glitch in the INS during the test on Wednesday surfaced leading to the postponement, the source claimed.

The entire nation was excited for the test launching as it was highly important in India’s strategic point of view as for the first time Agni-I was put under trial during night. The missile has already been inducted in the Army.