Two nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missiles test-fired successfully by India

India has successfully tested 2 advanced versions of Prithvi-II, the nuclear-capable ballistic missile, in quick succession, by destroying the targets accurately.

The Prithvi-II missiles, with a strike range of 350 kilometres, were launched from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur-on-Sea, off the coast of Orissa.

S P Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range, described the launch mission involving the two Prithvi-II missiles as a “copybook success.”

It was the advanced inertial guidance system of the missiles which enabled them to hit the targets within a few metres of what is called the circular error probability (CEP), Dash added.

The Prithvi-II two P-II missiles – which are capable of carrying warheads weighing 500 kilogrammes – were successfully launched within minutes of each other by the armed forces as a part of the operational exercises, an official of the Defence Ministry said.

The missiles hit accurately 2 different targets that were 350 kilometres away from the launch point.

The missiles, which were test-fired from mobile launchers, were tracked and monitored by two naval ships.

One of the significant factors of the twin tests was that they were held by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which was created in January 2003 to manage India’s nuclear armoury.

The Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), headed by the Prime Minister, and the Strategic Forces Command had been formed to ensure proper “command and control structures” after the 10-month-long troops mobilisation along the India-Pakistan border under ‘Operation Parakram’ in the aftermath of the December 2001 attack on Parliament.

The Prithvi missile was at first supposed to be a 150-kilometre-range ‘tactical’ battlefield missile carrying conventional warheads, but afterwards its role was enlarged to include the ‘strategic’ role, too, in order to carry nuclear payloads.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the advanced version of Prithvi is at present the mainstay of the Strategic Forces Command, since the 700-kilometre-range Agni-I and the 2,000- kilometre-range Agni-II ballistic missiles are still to be inducted into the armed forces.

While the Army has ordered 75 Prithvi-I missiles and 62 Prithvi-II missiles costing about Rs 1,500 crore, the Air Force has sought 63 Prithvi-II missiles worth Rs 906 crore.

The Navy has ordered Dhanush missiles (a variant of Prithvi, with a 330-kilometre range), worth Rs 116 crore, for its INS Subhadra and INS Suvarna, the two ‘dual-tasked’ warships.

Prithvi is the first missile developed under Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).