Prithvi II successfully test-fired

T.S. Subramanian

Surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi II lifts off from a road mobile launcher at Chandipur in Odisha on Saturday. Photo courtesy: DRDO

The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the armed forces successfully flight-tested the surface-to-surface Prithvi II missile from Chandipur in Balasore district in Odisha State on Saturday.

After the missile lifted off from a road-mobile launcher at 11.04 a.m. at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, it flew over its entire range of 350 km. It then impacted in the targeted area in the Bay of Bengal with an accuracy of less than ten metres. The missile, which can carry nuclear warheads, carried a dummy payload in this mission. The SFC is entrusted with launching delivery systems that will carry nuclear weapons.

Surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi II soars into the sky after it lifted off from a road mobile launcher at Chandipur, Odisha on Saturday. Photo courtesy: DRDO

The Defence Research and Development Organisation developed the Prithvi II, which is a single-stage missile that uses liquid propellants. It can carry a warhead weighing 500 kg.

V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, who was present at the ITR, said all the events from the lift-off to the missile impacting in the pre-determined area in the Bay of Bengal took place without any blemish and on the dot. He called the flight an “outstanding success.”

The impact took place with a single digit accuracy of plus or minus 10 metre. Five radars, another five electro-optical tracking systems along the coast and two ships tracked the missile’s trajectory for the entire duration of its flight. Dr. Saraswat, a missile technologist himself and the architect of the Prithvi variants, called the Prithvi II “a user-friendly missile, which has a completely guided trajectory all through.”

The missile was guided by a sophisticated inertial navigation guidance system (INS) and controlled by thrust vector control and aero-dynamic control systems, said Dr. Saraswat, who is the DRDO Director-General.

Prithvi has three variants — for the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. Prithvi II is the Air Force version. All the three variants have been inducted into the Services.

Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister V.K. Saraswat offers sweet to a member of the Strategic Forces Command on the successful flight-testing of Prithvi-II missile on Saturday. Photo: Courtesy DRDO

G. Satheesh Reddy, Associate Director, Research Centre, Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, said the missile’s entire avionics system functioned perfectly, which led to the missile reaching its targeted area with an accuracy of less than 10 metre. The RCI is a DRDO facility which (RCI) developed Prithvi II’s avionics including its inertial navigation and guidance systems.

The team from the armed forces and the DRDO missile technologists were led by the Project Director N. Sivasubramanyam and the Programme Director Adalat Ali. The Director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, A.K. Chakrabarti and Director, ITR, M.V.K.V. Prasad, witnessed the launch at Chandipur. The DRDL is a DRDO laboratory which has developed several missiles including Prithvi, Trishul, Akash and Nag. 

Courtesy : The Hindu