Within a span of two days, India demonstrated the reliability of another surface-to-surface missile, with the successful test-firing of Prithvi-II ballistic system to its full range of 350 km on Monday.
(Hypersonic missile Shourya was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on the Orissa coast on Saturday.)
Prithvi-II, was launched at 9 a.m. from Launch Complex-III of the ITR, Balasore in Chandipur by personnel of the Strategic Force Command (SFC) as part of a regular training exercise. After a flight of 500 seconds, it closed in on the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a single-digit accuracy of less than 10 metres. The flight test met all the mission objectives and it was a text-book launch.
A battery of radars, electro-optical systems and telemetry stations located along the coast tracked the missile throughout its flight. A naval ship located near the target witnessed the splash down.
The missile was picked up randomly from the production lot and the launch was monitored by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientists.
Prithvi-II, first indigenously developed strategic missile by the DRDO, was inducted into the armed forces. It was flight-tested a number of times as part of regular user trials.
The single-stage, liquid-propelled missile is equipped with an advanced inertial navigation, control and guidance system and can carry a payload of 500-1,000 kg to a distance of 350 km.
Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister V. K. Saraswat congratulated scientists and other DRDO employees and the armed forces for the successful flight test, says a press release here.
