India on Tuesday successfully test-fired its surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) ‘Pralay’, said to be as potent as Russian “Iskander” and China’s “Dong Feng 12”, from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.
Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the missile has a short range 350 km to 500 km and is capable of carrying a payload capacity of 500-1000 kg, said defence sources. It was launched around 9.50 am and met all mission objectives which were ascertained from a battery of tracking instruments that tracket its path along the coastline, observed defence officials.
Pralay, the battlefield missile which emerged out of the Prithvi defence vehicle, has been developed to meet forces requirement at the northern and western borders. Pralay will be developed for deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, they said.
The ₹332 crore-worth project to develop Pralay missile was approved in March 2015 and it has the capability to perform mid-air maneuvers to defeat anti-ballistic missile interceptors.