Dhanush missile launched successfully

Dhanush missile launched successfully, the ship-based anti-surface missile.India successfully tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile ‘Dhanush’, a naval variant of Prithvi with 350 km range, from a warship in Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.

It was fired by Navy personnel as part of a user-training exercise.

The nuclear-capable Dhanush, a naval version of Prithvi, was test fired at 11.35 hrs. It flew over 350 km and splashed down at the target point in the Bay with “pinpoint accuracy,” according to official sources in the Defence Research & Development Organisation. The missile followed the pre-designated trajectory with text-book precision and two naval ships anchored near the target tracked the splash.

The sources said the 350-km-range missile met all the velocity, height and guidance parameters. The radar systems of the Integrated Test Range (ITR), located along the coast, monitored the entire trajectory of the vehicle, which flew for 520 seconds before zeroing in on the target with a circular error probability (CEP) of below 10 metres.

The single-stage missile is powered by liquid propellants, it is 10 metres long and weighs six tonnes. It has one-metre diameter and can carry a 500-kg warhead.

V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister who is also the Director-General of the DRDO, Major General (retd.) P.C. Karbanda, who is Deputy National Security Adviser, and Rear Admiral C.S. Patham, who is Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Forces Command, were aboard INS Subhadra to witness the launch.

The sources said there would be two more flight tests of the nuclear-capable Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Agni-II (2,000 km-plus range) to overcome its failure in the two previous flights, in May and November 2009.

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