NEW DELHI, Dec 22: India on Wednesday successfully test fired the short-range, surface-to-surface guided ballistic missile ‘Pralay’, the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) sources said. The solid-fuel, battlefield missile developed by the DRDO is based on the Prithvi Defence Vehicle from the Indian ballistic missile programme.
It was the maiden flight test of indigenously developed missile and was test fired from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island near Balasore off Odisha coast. “The mission has met all its objectives. The new missile followed the desired quasi ballistic trajectory and reached the designated target with high degree accuracy, validating the control, guidance and mission algorithms. All the sub-systems performed satisfactorily,” a DRDO statement said. The missile has a range of 150-500 Kms with a payload capacity of 500-1,000 kg.
Quasi missile trajectory is also ballistic but after certain range it changes the projectile path in the midair to defeat interceptors, defence official explained. All the sensors deployed near the impact point across the eastern coast, including the down range ships, tracked the missile trajectory and captured all the events, DRDO said.
The missile is powered with solid propellant rocket motor and many new technologies and can be launched from a mobile launcher. Secretary Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO, Dr G Satheesh Reddy said this is a new generation surface-to-surface missile equipped with modern technologies. The missile was launched around 10:30 am and a battery of tracking instruments monitored its trajectory along the coast line.
The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter, “Congratulations to the DRDO and associated teams for the maiden development flight trial. My compliments to them for the fast-track development and successful launch of modern Surface-to-Surface Quasi Ballistic missile. It is a significant milestone achieved today,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)