Prithvi-II, India’s indigenously developed nuclear capable missile was successfully test fired on Thursday. The missile has a strike range of 350 km, and it is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads.

The test was a part of a user trial by the Army and was conducted from a mobile launcher at launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) located at Chandipur, in Baleswar District of Odisha.

Prithvi-II is surface to surface missile thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit the target. The navigation aid, inertial navigation system (INS), uses a computer, motion sensors and rotation sensors to calculate the position and velocity of a moving target without any external references.

Prithvi-II is the first missile to be developed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP).

It can operate with both liquid and solid fuels and can carry both conventional as well as nuclear payloads.

The trial data was conducted by Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It is responsible for management of India’s strategic nuclear weapons stockpile.

“The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activities were carried out by the specially formed SFC and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of training exercise…The missile trajectory was tracked by DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha,” a defence scientist told PTI.

The teams on the other side were on board a ship near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal. They monitored the splashdown and the terminal events. The last user trial of Prithvi-II was successfully conducted on February 19, 2015 from the same test range.

The Indian government had launched the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program in 1983 with the view making the country self-sufficient in terms of development and production of wide range of Ballistic Missiles, Surface to Air Missiles and more.

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