India today test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile with a strike range of 3,000 km from Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast. The indigenously developed 17-meter long and 2-meter diameter surface-to-air missile, which can carry a warhead of 1.5 tonne protected by a carbon all composite heat shield, took off at 1315 hours this afternoon from a mobile launcher at launch complex-4 of Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island.

The trajectory of the trial was monitored for data analysis through telemetry stations, electro-optic systems and sophisticated radars located along the coast, and by naval ships anchored near the impact point. It was the fifth test in the Agni-III series carried out to establish the 'repeatability' of the state-of-the-art missile's performance.