India's nuclear delivery capability received a boost with the successful test-firing of an Agni III missile with a range of more than 1,800 miles.

The missile was launched in mid-morning this week from the test facility on Wheeler Island, 6 miles off the country's east coast in the Bay of Bengal and about 90 miles from Bhubaneshwar, the capital city of Orissa state. Wheeler Island is just over 1 mile long and covers 390 acres.

The launch was widely publicized by all media, including with video clips on newspaper Web sites. The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was tested from a rail mobile launcher just before 11 a.m., according to most reports.

"All mission parameters were met," said defense sources who noted this was the fourth flight test in the Agni-III series. The first test of Agni III was an unsuccessful launch in July 2006.

Many media and commentators also reported that the Agni III intermediate-range missile is capable of reaching major cities in parts of China.

The Agni-III missile is powered by a two-stage solid propellant system and is 55 feet long, 6 feet in diameter and weighs around 50 tons. It can carry a payload of 1.5 tons and is protected by an all-composite heat shield.

Analysts have said the missile's circular error probable -- its accuracy to hit target -- is around 125 feet, making it extremely accurate by international standards. Because of its high accuracy, it can deliver a smaller payload of around 200 kiloton thermonuclear or boosted fission to achieve desired destruction. In turn, the missile can be lighter in weight, which could increase its range.

India's Institute of Science also claimed a technological breakthrough in May 2008 when it said a chromium coating applied to the nose of a missile could increase its range by at least a third.

As the chromium coating evaporates through friction, it reacts with the oxygen in the atmosphere and produces chromium oxide, according to the Indian aviation news Web site domain-b.com. This reaction is exothermic, producing more heat, thereby decreasing the density of the air around the nose of the missile. As the air pressure reduces, so does the drag on the missile.

The beginning of the missile series, Agni-I, was first tested at the Interim Test Range in Chandipur in 1989 and was capable of carrying a conventional payload of 2,200 pounds or a nuclear warhead.

Not everyone was happy with the Agni III missile test. Orissa state wildlife officials want to stop missile testing during the nesting period of an endangered migratory turtle. P.N. Padhi, the principal chief conservator of forest and wildlife, said, "The testing should have been avoided."

The main Wheeler Island is one of six in the Wheeler group, which the government's Defense Research and Development Organization bought in the mid-1990s to build its test site. The Wheelers are within a larger string of islands that form a part of the 100-square-mile Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, also a major nesting site for the highly endangered Olive Ridley turtle.

Up to 800,000 turtles can nest there every winter between December and March, according to wildlife officials who claim the testing causes vibrations in the ground that may disrupt maturation of turtle eggs.

The DRDO has in the past assured state officials that no testing would take place between November and April.