BHUBANESWAR: Indian armed forces successfully conducted first night trial of nuclear-capable surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile Prithvi-II from a defence test facility off Odisha coast.
Equipped with state of the art guidance system the missile was test fired from a mobile launcher positioned at the launching complex III (LC-III) of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at about 8.30 pm.
Mounted on a Mobile Tatra transporter-erector Launcher (MTL) the indigenously developed missile was fired in a real-time situation by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of Indian army in full operational configurations.
This was second test of the missile in two weeks and the test came a day after successful trial of 2,000 km range Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Agni-II from Abdul Kalam Island.
Prithvi-II, capable of attacking targets at a range of 350 km, is India’s first developed and inducted indigenous surface-to-surface strategic missile. The test proved the reliability of the weapon and reconfirmed its operational readiness which means it can be fired anytime and in any terrain in short notice.
“The night trial is highly significant as all preparations are done in dark so that it can be invisible to enemies. This was first trial of Prithvi-II during night and it has met all mission parameters as coordinated,” said a defence official.
Guided all through by an accurate Inertial Navigation System (INS) and controlled by the thrust vector control and Aero-dynamic control systems, the missile reached the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 meters.
The single stage liquid propelled weapon developed by DRDO was inducted into the Armed Forces in 2003 and is into series of production since then. One of the missiles drawn from the inventory was used for the test.
All the radars, electro-optical systems located along the coast have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile throughout the flight path. A naval ship located near the target in the sea witnessed the final event.
The 8.56 meter long missile with a diameter of one metre has the capability to carry one tonne of warhead. The missile thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engine uses an inertial guidance system while the warhead uses a radar correlation terminal guidance system.