Manmohan Congratulates AGNI-III team

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has felicitated all those associated with the sucessful test launch of AGNI-III Missile earlier in the day.

In a message here, the Prime Minister observed that the flight test of the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) was ''an impressive illustration of the indigenous capacity developed by our scientists and technologists in mastering strategic high techonologies esssential for maintaining the nation's defence and security''.

In today's successful test conducted at Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal, off Orissa coast, the 16-metre-long 48-tonne sophisticated missile lifted off successfully from its Rail Mobile Launcher System at 1050hrs leaving a trail of orange and yellow smoke.

The 3,000-KM-plus-range missile is capable of carrying a 1.5-tonne payload and its successful test-launch, in Defence Minister AK Antony's words ''confirmed India's strategic capability for Minimum Credible Deterrence''.

In a separate congratulatory message to Defence scientists on today's successful launch and for ''achieving another important milestone in self-reliance'' in this critical strategic system, Minister Antony said the successful launch showed that India had matured in the missile technology area and was definitely on a par with many other developed countries.

UNI