India successfully test-fires Prithvi - ll

Shristi Biswas

17th October 2020

According to India Today, India successfully conducted a night trial of the intrinsically manufactured nuclear-capable missile Prithvi-2 as part of a user trial by the Indian Army from a test range in Balasore, Odisha on 16th of October.

The missile blasted off around 7.30 pm from launch complex three of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, and the trial was successful, they said. The trial of the missile, having a strike range of Three hundred and fifty kilometres, was carried out via mobile launcher. The trajectory of the missile was tracked by the radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast off Odisha, Defence Research and Development (DRDO) official said."

The missile was chosen from the production stock and was executed by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Indian Army and observed by scientists of the DRDO as part of a training exercise, defence sources said.

The downrange teams on board a ship monitored the terminal events and splashdown deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal. Liquid propulsion twin engines power the Prithvi-2 missile capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilograms of warheads, the sources said. An advanced inertial guidance system is used by this missile with a manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, they said.

Prithvi-2 (Source : The Economic Times)

The efforts by the DRDO may be viewed on the backdrop of government's call for 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat', even in the field of defence technology, has been praised by the political leadership including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On October 9, after DRDO tested the New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (Rudram-1), India's first indigenous anti-radiation missile, Rajnath Singh congratulated the agency calling it a 'remarkable achievement'. Rajnath Singh recently said, "From design to production, we are trying to make India one of the leading countries of the world in the Defence," Naval Shipbuilding, and Aerospace sectors with the active participation of both public and private sector."

The tests could also be perceived as strong signalling by the defence forces of India on the backdrop of the standoff with Chinese People's Liberation Army troops along the Line of Actual Control. The nine-metre tall 'Prithvi' was the first missile to have been developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was inducted into the armoury of Indian defence forces in 2003.

(Sources: Times Now, Hindustan Times)

Edited by: Ritish