New Delhi (Sputnik): The Indian armed forces have successfully test-fired nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile Dhanush in full operational configuration on Friday morning from a naval warship positioned in the Bay of Bengal. The trial was conducted at about 10.52 am (Indian Standard Time) by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Navy from an undisclosed location nearly 45 km from the Paradip coast.
#Dhanush indigenously developed missile successfully test-fired from Paradeep Port of #Odisha. pic.twitter.com/byKOyhxR8Z
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) February 23, 2018
The Dhanush missile is a single-stage, liquid-propelled, short-range ballistic missile and is the naval variant of the Prithvi missile. This was the third test of this version of a Prithvi missile this month. On Wednesday, the SFC of Indian Army had successfully conducted the first night trial of Prithvi-II ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off Odisha coast.
"It was a textbook launch and fantastic mission accomplished. The missile has achieved close to zero circular error probability," a defense official who did not wish to be named confirmed to Sputnik.
READ MORE: Night Trial of India's Nuke-Capable Prithvi-II Ballistic Missile Successful
The missile is about 8.53 meters in length and 0.9 meters in diameter; its launch weight totals about 4.4 metric tons. Dhanush has already been inducted into the armed forces and is under production after it successfully completed several developmental and user trials.
