Prithvi-II achieves “near perfect” accuracy

Here’s the press release that the Defence Ministry issued this afternoon: The surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi-II was successfully launched from ITR, Chandipur, Balasore off Orissa coast at 10:26 this morning. Prithvi–II has a range of 350 Kms with a flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 kms. Prithvi-II is inducted into Army and today’s launch was carried out as part of Army training.

Taken from a routine production lot, the missile was launched with an improved “Aided Inertial Navigation” and achieved single digit accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP). The missile has the features to deceive any anti ballistic missiles. Top Army officials and top DRDO ccientists witnessed the launch. Dr V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller R & D oversaw all the operations of the missile launch. Shri SP Dash, Director, ITR, Shri DS Reddy, Project Director and other scientists led the team of Scientists. The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony congratulated all the scientists of DRDO on the successful launch of Prithvi-II. Shri M Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri has also congratulated the scientists and wished them many more glorious achievements.

12 thoughts on “Prithvi-II achieves “near perfect” accuracy”

  1. anon: the MoD releases these pictures with their press release. it’s a fresh trend that began about six months ago. before that, getting even a word about missile tests was difficult. now they send us wonderful high-res pix with write-ups. a good thing, i reckon!

  2. glory glory glory! bootiful pix shiv. smashing stuff! btw how many prithvi-2s are inducted in the army?

  3. The release says range 350 km yet it is a prithvi-II tested by the army whose advertised range has always been 250 kms for the air-force. I wonder if they tested a completely new missile (or a heavily modified Prithvi) and just called it a Prithvi-II. Any thoughts on that Shiv ?
    BTW, I seriously hope the army produces no less than 300 Prithvis so as to missile saturate the western sector. It might be useful in the eastern sector too bhai-bhai came too close for comfort.

  4. Mr. Aroor, although a tactical ballistic missile, the Prithvi-II it can be used to strike many of Pakistan’s forward bases like Sargodha, Sukkur and Karachi, even while not requiring to be too close to the border.

    Again, the Prithvi based ABM system can in turn defend our air-bases against strikes by Pakistani missiles of Ghauri and Shaheen series. However, as the costs will be prohibitive they must be brought lower.

    Thank you.

  5. doods, the prithvis regular warhead is between 1-1.5T and hence its range is @ 250 km

    with a 500 kg warhead and software fix, its 350 km

    go to bharatrakshak and see the missile site it has detailed graphs

  6. From BR Prithvi SRBM page:
    The Prithvi missile comes in four variants:
    • SS-150/Prithvi-I is a battlefield support system for the army (range 150 km, 1000 kg payload). It is a single stage, dual engine, liquid fuel, road-mobile, short-range surface-to-surface missile
    • SS-250/Prithvi-II is dedicated to the Indian Air Force (range 250 km, 500 – 750 kg payload). It is a single stage, dual engine, liquid fuel, road-mobile, short-range surface-to-surface missile. DRDO has decided to increase the payload capability of the SS-250/Prithvi-II variant to 1000 kg by using boosted liquid propellant to generate higher thrust-to-weight ratio [1].
    • SS-350/Prithvi-III is a solid fuelled version with a 350 km range and a 1000 kg payload. It is a two stage, solid fuel, road-mobile, short-range, surface-to-surface missile. Sagarika and Prithvi-III are two different acronyms for the same missile [2]. A related program, known as Project K-15, is in development and will enable the missile to be launched from a submerged submarine [3].
    • Dhanush (in Sanskrit/Hindi means Bow) is a system consisting of a stabilization platform (Bow) and the Missile (Arrow). The system can fire either the SS-250 or the SS-350 variants. There may likely be certain customizations in missile configuration to certify it for sea worthiness.

    Now where do you see 1.5 T warhead in all this ? Also see the P-II which it says is for the airforce and not for the army so it brings me back to my earlier question that why the army tests a production lot P-II which goes 100 kms more than its stated range ?
    Or is it that the missile always had a 350 km range with a 500 kg warhead but was advertised that way. Or is it the new composite body missile that we keep hearing every now and then.
    Remember if you consider the strategic depth in the western sector 100 kms is a lot because it gives you the option to forward deploy and strike deep or the option to deploy at stand off range and strike at near border targets. Also a naval ship armed with a Dhanush-350 gives you a lot of flexibility

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  8. airforce version? lil confusing… why would airforce need a surface to surface missile? or can the prithvi b launched from aircraft? if so, what kinda aircraft in our inventory can launch it?

    — pakka desi

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