BALASORE: The Indian military successfully test-fired the Dhanush missilefrom a warship off the coast of Odisha on Friday morning. The Dhanushmissile is also known as the Prithvi-III, and is a short-range ballisticmissile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Dhanush is the naval variant of the surface-to-surface Prithvi missileplatform. It can be used for both ship-to-ship and ship-to-surface strikes.The missile has a declared strike range of 350 km, and is capable ofcarrying a warhead up to 500 kg in weight. The missile may also be fittedwith conventional warheads.

Officials told news agency PTI that Friday’s test of the Dhanush was a”complete success” and that all the mission objectives had been achieved.All flight parameters were monitored and verified by the telemetry andradar facilities of the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO), which developed the Dhanush missile.

The missile test was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command, thetri-services military command that controls all of India’s nuclear weaponsand their associated delivery systems.

The Dhanush missile made its first test flight in 2000, with the firstfully operational test conducted in 2004. It has been test-fired a total ofseven times so far. The last time the Dhanush was test fired was inNovember 2015.

The design of the Dhanush missile features customisations to the Prithviplatform to make it suitable for launch from a ship. These designmodifications would include a stabilisation platform.

The Dhanush/Prithvi-III is part of the five missile platforms that havebeen developed by the DRDO since 1983, as part of the Integrated GuidedMissile Development Programme (IGMDP). The other families of missilesdeveloped under the IGMPD are Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag.