New Delhi: India on September 23 conducted a successful night testfire of its indigenously developed nuclear capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the Indian Army from a base in Odisha, defence sources said.

The state-of-the-art missile was test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in darkness and the trial was successful in meeting all the parameters, they said.

The trial of the missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the ITR, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official said.

Describing the trial as a routine exercise, he said, the missile trajectory was tracked by radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations by the DRDO along the coast of Odisha.

The missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activity was carried out by Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Army and monitored by scientists of DRDO as part of the training exercise, official sources said.

The downrange teams on board a ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown.

The last night time testfire of Prithvi-II was conducted successfully from the ITR on November 20, 2019.

Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500 to 1,000 kg of warheads and is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines, the sources said.

The state-of-the-art missile uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, they said.

Already inducted into the armoury of the defence forces in 2003, nine-metre long ‘Prithvi’ was the first missile to have been developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).