India test-fires nuke capable Prithvi-II, Dhanush

India successfully test fired two nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missiles —Prithvi-II and Dhanush — in quick succession early today from different locations off the Orissa coast, adding more firepower to the armed forces.

“The tests were successful. Both the missiles test fired early today met all the parameters,” said S P Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur. The missiles have been developed indigenously.

The Prithvi-II was test fired from ITR, Chandipur, 15 km from here, at around 0548 hours from a mobile launcher from ITR complex-3, while the ship-based Dhanush was fired from INS-Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal near Puri at around 0544 hours by the Navy personnel as part of user training exercise.

Prithvi-II has a range of 295 km, while Dhanush, the naval version of Prithvi, can cruise upto 350 km. The test firing of the short-range, surface-to-surface Prithvi-II, which has already been inducted into the armed forces, was a user trial by the Army. The sleek missile is “handled by the strategic force command”, the sources said.