Samikhsya Bureau
The night trial of nuclear -capable medium range surface to surface missile Prithvi II was successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on sea, on the Odisha coast on Thursday as part of a user trial by the Army, sources said.
India’s Strategic Forces Command successfully test-fired the indigenously built Prithvi Missile equipped with state-of-the-art guidance and developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
The 350 km range missile, designed for quick maneuverability and war-time efficiency missile was test fired from a mobile launcher from the ITR Launch Complex 3 at 8.30 pm.
All the radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations along the coast have monitored all the trajectory parameters of the vehicle throughout the mission. Several scientists of the DRDO and officials of the ITR were present during the test fire of Prithivi-II missile.
ITR sources said the missile could be used as a tactical battlefield weapon. According to them, it was a routine trial. Earlier, Prithvi II had been successfully launched at night from the ITR base in February last year.
Although it has a range of 350 km with a 500 kg warhead, the payload could be increased to 1000 kg.
Prithivi is one of the five missiles under various stages of development as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). Inducted into India’s Strategic Command Forces in 2003, Prithvi II was the first missile to be developed under IGMDP.
(With UNI inputs)
