The government successfully test fired a surface to surface Agni II missile off the coast of Odisha at 8.45am this morning.

The government has successfully test fired a surface to surface Agni II missile off the coast of Odisha.

The launch was conducted by the Army Strategic Force Command (SFC) in association with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and support of Integrated test range(ITR), Chandipur at around 8.45am.

The newswebindia website said that the missile was picked at random from a clutch of missiles in the SFC unit and was launched to test its effectiveness. The Army has already deployed Agni-II in its arsenal.

Designed and developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory, a unit of the DRDO, in Hyderabad, the 20 metre Agni-II, is a two-stage surface-to-surface missile, powered by solid propellants which can carry nuclear warheads over a distance of 2,500 km.

The missile can carry a nuclear warhead of one ton although it carried a dummy payload in the test flight.

The Hindu quoted missile strategists at the DRDO as saying "After the spectacular success of Agni-V, with a range of more than 5,000 km, during its maiden launch in April 2012, Agni variants with different ranges, various capabilities, different platforms and the ability to deploy are getting tested.”