India tests two nuke capable missiles (Second Lead)

BHUBANESWAR - India Saturday successfully tested two indigenously developed nuclear capable missiles, Dhanush and Prithvi II, an official said.

“Both the missiles were successfully launched at the same time at about 5.30 a.m.,” S.P. Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa’s Balasore district, told IANS.

The Prithvi II surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with a range of 350 km, was launched from Chandipur, 230 km from Bhubaneswar.

Dhanush, a naval version of Prithvi with the same range, was launched from a ship in the Bay of Bengal near Puri, 56 km from here, minutes earlier.

“Both the missiles are under production after successful completion of development trials and have been inducted into the armed forces. The missiles were flight tested as part of regular training,” he said.

“The trajectory of both the missiles were monitored. Both were text book launches and met all the mission objectives,” he said.

“All the mission sequencing events occurred as expected. Advanced navigation and guidance systems were flight tested in this exercise,” he said.

Prithvi is India’s first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).

The missile with a flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 km has the capability to carry 500 kg of warhead.

It has the features to deceive any anti-ballistic missile. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory and reaches the targets within a few metres’ accuracy.

Dhanush gives the Indian Navy the capability to launch a missile at the enemy with precision.

Scientists present at the mission included V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, P. Venugopalan, director of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), and S.P. Dash, director of the test range.