NEW DELHI – India’s Strategic Force Command Saturday successfullytest-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missileduring night time as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range inOdisha, defence sources said, PTI has reported.
The surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, waslaunched from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the IntegratedTest Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore around 8.30 pm, they said.Prithvi-II was previously successfully test-fired during night time onFebruary 21 this year from the ITR at Chandipur. The missile is capable ofcarrying 500 to 1,000 kilogramme of warheads and is thrusted by liquidpropulsion twin engines.
The state-of-the-art missile uses advanced inertial guidance system withmanoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, they said.
The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entirelaunch activities were carried out by the specially-formed Strategic ForceCommand of the Army and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO) as part of training exercise, they said.”The missile trajectory was tracked by radars, electro-optical trackingsystems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast of Odisha,” thesources said.
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The downrange teams on board the ship deployed near the designated impactpoint in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown. OnNovember 21, 2016, two Prithvi-II missiles were successfully test fired insalvo mode in quick succession from the same base. Inducted into the Armedforces of the country in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stageliquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to have been developed bythe DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, thesources said.
