Chandigarh, January 28
Defence Research and Development Organisation will test the “containerised” version of Agni-5 intercontinental ballistic missile later this year, with user trials by the armed forces scheduled for the end of the next year.

DRDO’s Director General, Missiles and Strategic Systems, Dr VG Sekaran told The Tribune during his visit here that three more developmental phase trials of the Agni-5 are required to validate the design configuration and new technologies, before user trials commence by the end of 2015. User trials, he said, are as good as handing over the missile system for induction, implying that Agni-5, India’s longest range nuclear armed missile that has hit targets 5,000 kms away, could be operational in about two years’ time.

Agni-5 would be road or rail mobile and will be stored in and launched from a hermetically sealed canister made of special steel that preserves the missile for several years.