Balasore, Aug 25: India’s indigenously developed nuclear-capable missile Prithvi-II was successfully launched at 11.03 am, on Saturday from the integrated test range at Chandipur off Odisha coast.
Prithvi-II, developed strategic missile by the DRDO, has already been inducted into the armed forces. The surface-to-surface Prithvi-II capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads has a length of 9 metres and is one metre in diameter with liquid propulsion twin engine.
The defence sources said, "The sophisticated surface-to-surface missile was flight tested at around 1100 hours from a mobile launcher at ITR's launch complex-3 as part of an operational exercise." The DRDO officials said the missile had an "excellent flight" and it travelled over its entire range of 350 km. Prithvi is handled by the strategic force command (SFC), they said, adding the trial was conducted to gauge the effectiveness of the weapon in a real time situation.
India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme has developed Prithvi which has the capability to carry 500 kg of both nuclear and conventional warheads with a strike range of 350 km. Prithvi has flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5km.
An official said that Prithvi-II has been successfully flight tested several times as part of the training exercise and today’s launch again proved its reliability and accuracy. An official said, "The whole exercise was aimed at studying the control and guidance system of the missile besides providing training to the Army, which happens to be the user."
Prithvi was first test-fired on January 27, 1996, and the development stages were completed in 2004. In September 24, 2010 the test was failed and two more missiles were launched on December 22, 2010, successfully.
The missile reached the predefined target in Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 meters on September 26, 2011.
Prithvi-II, developed strategic missile by the DRDO, has already been inducted into the armed forces. The surface-to-surface Prithvi-II capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads has a length of 9 metres and is one metre in diameter with liquid propulsion twin engine.
The defence sources said, "The sophisticated surface-to-surface missile was flight tested at around 1100 hours from a mobile launcher at ITR's launch complex-3 as part of an operational exercise." The DRDO officials said the missile had an "excellent flight" and it travelled over its entire range of 350 km. Prithvi is handled by the strategic force command (SFC), they said, adding the trial was conducted to gauge the effectiveness of the weapon in a real time situation.
India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme has developed Prithvi which has the capability to carry 500 kg of both nuclear and conventional warheads with a strike range of 350 km. Prithvi has flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5km.
An official said that Prithvi-II has been successfully flight tested several times as part of the training exercise and today’s launch again proved its reliability and accuracy. An official said, "The whole exercise was aimed at studying the control and guidance system of the missile besides providing training to the Army, which happens to be the user."
Prithvi was first test-fired on January 27, 1996, and the development stages were completed in 2004. In September 24, 2010 the test was failed and two more missiles were launched on December 22, 2010, successfully.
The missile reached the predefined target in Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 meters on September 26, 2011.