Army successfully test-fires Prithvi-II missile
16 Feb 2016
India today test-fired its indigenously developed Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km and is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg warheads.
The missile test, part of a user trial by the Army, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, in Orissa, at about 1000 hrs, defence sources said.
Prithvi-II uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target.
It has a higher lethal effect compared to equivalent missiles in the world. Scientists say the accuracy has already been demonstrated in the past in the development flight trials.
The twin-engine Prithvi-II is 8.56 metre in length, 1.1 metre in width and weighs 4,600 kg.
The data of the missile trial conducted by the specially formed Strategic Force Command (SFC) were being analysed, they said.
The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activities were carried out by the SFC and monitored by the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), as part of training exercise, a defence scientist said.
The missile trajectory was tracked by DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha.
The downrange teams on board the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown, they said.
Inducted into India's armed forces in 2003, Prithvi is India's first indigenously-built ballistic missile and is one of the five missiles being developed under the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme by the DRDO, and is now a proven technology, they said.
The battlefield missile, with flight duration of 483 seconds and a peak altitude of 43.5 km, has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles and uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring capabilities and reaches its target within a few metres of accuracy.
The last user trial of Prithvi-II was successfully conducted on 26 November 2015 from the same test range in Odisha.