N-capable Prithvi-II successfully tested

India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed,nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi-II.

India on Wednesday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed,nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi-II twice in close succession from the Integrated Test Range ITR at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district of Orissa.

The nine-metre-long,liquid-propelled and twin engine-propelled missile with a maximum range of 350 km was first blasted off from launch complex-3 at 8.17 am and then again at 9.14 am,said VK Saraswat,scientific advisor to the Defence Minister .

It was a salvo launch drill in which two missiles are blasted off in close succession. The missiles had a high degree of terminal accuracy. The idea of todays test was to give minimum reaction time to the enemy and we are happy with the results, Saraswat said.

This was the second time two Prithvi missiles were flight-tested successfully within a gap of one hour.

DRDO sources said the missiles,equipped with state-of-the-art guidance system,reached the specified target after a flight duration of about eight minutes.

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, DRDO officials said.

The first missile covered 279.9 km while the one launched an hour later covered 295.4 km.

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The entire operation was conducted by the Strategic Forces Command of the Army. The first missile test-fired at 8.17 was codenamed A22 while the second one fired at 9.14 am was named A24. The launch operations were carried out by the Armed Forces and guided by DRDO scientists.

Director of DRDL P. Venugopalan,director ITR S P Dash,programme director V L N Rao and project directors D S Reddy and Adalat Ali were present. Prtihvi-II,already inducted into the Army and the Indian Air Force,is capable of carrying warheads weighing 500-1,000 kg. It is equipped with an advanced inertial navigation system and has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles.

On September 24,an user trial of Prithvi-II had ended in an embarrassing failure seconds after its launch. The last successful launch of Prithvi-II was on June 18.