India conducts fresh night trial of Prithvi-2 missile

India on Tuesday successfully conducted another night trial of its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-2 missile as part of a user trial for the armed forces from a test range in Odisha coast, a defence source said. The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was carried out barely a fortnight after two back-to-back trials of the Prithvi-2 were conducted successfully at night from the same base on November 20.

"Today's trial of Prithvi-2 missile was successful and the test met all parameters. It was a routine trial," the source said. The trial of the surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 kilometres, was carried out from a mobile launcher of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here at around 7.50 pm.

Prithvi-2 is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilograms of warheads and is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. The state-of-the-art missile uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, the source said.

The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activities were carried out by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the armed forces and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of a training exercise. "The trajectory of the missile was tracked by radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast of Odisha," said the source.

The downrange teams onboard the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown. Already inducted into the armoury of the defence forces in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stage liquid- fuelled "Prithvi" is the first missile to have been developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)..

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