Nuclear-capable Prithvi II ballistic missile successfully test-fired today

Ballistic missile Prithvi II test fired

Balasore (Odisha): India on Thursday test-fired its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near here as part of a user trial by the army.

"The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted at around 0907 hrs from a mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range's launch complex-III at Chandipur," defence sources said.

The state-of-the-art Prithvi is the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMPD) and has the capability to carry 500 kg of both nuclear and conventional warheads with a strike range of 350 km, they said.

The missile uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory. The test-fire of the sophisticated short-range ballistic missile, which has already been inducted into the armed forces, was a user trial by the army and monitored by scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The sleek missile is handled by the strategic force command (SFC), a defence scientist said, adding the trial was conducted to gauge the effectiveness of the weapon in a real time situation.
"The whole exercise was aimed at studying the control and guidance system of the missile besides providing training to the Army," said an official.

The missile is 9 metre-long and one metre in diameter with liquid propulsion twin engine. A defence scientist associated with the trial said radars and electro-optical systems located along the coast tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile throughout the flight path.   

Prithvi-II has been successfully flight tested several times as part of the training exercise and the last trial was a complete success on August 25, 2012 as it reached the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10 meters, they said. 

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Armed forces personnel dissatisfied with One Rank, One Pension scheme

 Though the UPA government has rolled out the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen, and tried to bridge the gap between pre and post-January 2006 retirees, resentment is brewing among serving and retired armed forces personnel, who have termed it an ‘eyewash’ and a feeble attempt at “rectification” of a fault dating back to 2006.


Several ex-servicemen, as well as serving armed forces personnel, pointed out on Tuesday that after the Government’s Rs. 2300 crore package for pensioners, a sepoy would be entitled to a total increase of Rs. 622 per month in his pension, and the raise would be Rs. 761 for a havildar.

Among the officers, a Lieutenant Colonel, on an average, would get a raise of Rs. 565 per month.

They pointed out that several anomalies still remain, and none of the core issues, raised by the three Service Chiefs in August with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have been accepted.

Among other things, the three Service Chiefs had asked for the resolution of serving personnel issues, like fixation of common payscales for all JCOs and Other Ranks, grant of non-functional upgradation status to commissioned officers, and one rank one pension to the retired personnel. The Chiefs had also pointed out disparities between officers in uniform and their civilian counterparts.

Citing an example, some officers pointed out disparities in nine organisations of Group A services within the armed forces, where a superintendent engineer was at par with a colonel, but after non-functional upgradation (NFU), had become equivalent to a Major General, whereas the chief engineer, higher in status in that very organisation, was equivalent to a Brigadier.

While pledging to continue their struggle for their rights, ex-servicemen said the pension hike, announced on Monday, amounted to “wrong and deceitful” treatment of their long-pending OROP demand.

“It is deceiving. The Government has wrongly interpreted the term ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP). They haven’t given OROP; instead they have just merely made an enhancement in pension,” Chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Raj Kadyan, said here.

IESM on Tuesday wrote to Dr. Singh, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, and the three Service chiefs, explaining how the government decision doesn’t meet their long-pending demand to provide equitable pensions.

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Nuclear-capable Agni-IV missile successfully test fired

In a quantum jump in its missile programme, India today successfully test-fired a highly advanced nuclear-capable Agni-IV ballistic missile with a strike range of about 4,000 km from an island off Odisha coast.

The long-range missile was test-fired from a road mobile launcher from complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, at about 1135 hours, defence sources said.


"The trial was successful and the missile reached the pre-defined target in about 20 minutes," DRDO sources said they said, adding Defence Minister AK Antony congratulated all scientists of DRDO for successful flight test of AGNI-IV.

The missile, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and propelled by composite rocket motor technology, was tested for its full capability. A high performance on-board computer with distributed avionics architecture and high speed reliable communication bus and a full digital control system were used to control and guide the missile to the target.

"It is equipped with modern and compact avionics to provide high level of reliability," a DRDO official said. "The state-of-the-art Ring Laser Gyros-based high accuracy INS (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINGS) complementing each other in redundant mode were incorporated into the missile system in guidance mode," he said.

The sophisticated missile is lighter in weight and has two stages of solid propulsion. The payload, with a re-entry heat shield, can withstand temperature of more than 3000 degree Celsius, a defence scientist said.

It is 20-metres long and has a launch weight of 17 tonnes. It can carry a payload of one tonne, he said.

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