The 7.3-metre-long missile weighing about 1,280 kg was test fired from a mobile launcher parked at the launch pad number three of the premier missile testing centre at 8:20 am.
“The missile equipped with state-of-the-art high accuracy navigation, guidance and electro mechanical actuation systems with latest onboard computer achieved terminal accuracy of less than 10 metres,” a statement released by the ITR, Chandipur said.
The flight path of the indigenously developed missile was tracked and monitored by various radar and electro optical systems located at different places along the Orissa coast. A ship of the Indian Navy anchored near the target point in the Bay of Bengal witnessed the final event.
Aimed at providing the Indian Army a cost effective, quick reaction, all weather and all terrain high accurate battle field tactical support system, the newly launched missile which has the capability to hit a target at a distance of 150 km carrying different types of warheads up to 200 kg has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation scientists in a short span of less than two years.
“The sophisticated missile which can be compared to ATACMS missile of the US goes to a height of 35 km before hitting the target at a range of 150 km in about 250 seconds,” sources said. Another feature of the missile is that as many as six of these missiles can be fired from a mobile launcher simultaneously. “Prahaar is launched from a Road Mobile System which can carry six missiles at a time and can be fired in salvo mode in all directions,” the statement released by the ITR said.
A number of senior DRDO scientists and officials from the Ministry of Defence besides Dr V K Saraswat, the scientific advisor to the defence minister and ITR director S P Dash witnessed the successful launch of the missile. The Balasore district administration had shifted about 400 people from five villages surrounding the ITR as a precautionary measure before the test firing of the missile.
They were housed in temporary camps set up by the district administration and were given daily allowances, an official in the Balasore district administration said.