India conducts night flight test of Prithvi-II short range missile, second missile test in 2 days

India conducted a successful night flight test of its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II short-range missile on Wednesday, February 21, media reported.

One randomly selected 350km (215 mile) range missile was fired at 8:30 p.m. from a mobile launcher at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur as part of a training exercise by the Indian Army’s Strategic Force Command, defence sources told PTI. The exercise was monitored by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the missile splashed down in the Bay of Bengal.

Notably, the Prithvi-II was recently test-fired on February 7, a day after a test of the Agni-I. On Tuesday, India conducted a successful test flight of its Agni-II medium range ballistic missile.

The single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II missile can carry a payload of around 500kg (1,100 lb). It was first test-fired in January 1996 and inducted into India’s Strategic Forces Command in 2003.

It uses an advanced inertial guidance system.

India has conducted a number of other recent missile tests in recent weeks. A successful test flight of India’s Agni-II medium range ballistic missile was carried out on February 20. The medium-range Agni-I was tested on February 6 followed the following day by a test of the Prithvi-II. India’s nuclear-capable Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully tested for the fifth time on January 18, the Ministry of Defence said. The Advanced Air Defence missile system intercepted a target ballistic missile in a test on December 28. Earlier in December, DRDO declared as successful a launch of its Akash surface-to-air missile fitted with an indigenous seeker, and in November, DRDO said it conducted a successful test flight of the indigenously developed Nirbhay long-range sub-sonic cruise missile.