Twin test of Prithvi-II postponed: ITR Director

Balasore (Odisha), Dec 21: A twin user trial of India's nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile by the Army was deferred today due to a technical problem at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near here.

"The test was postponed due to a technical snag," ITR Director S P Dash told PTI, adding that the date for future trial would be decided after correcting the problem. The ITR director's statement came in the midst of media reports that two missiles had failed to take off during the twin trial.

"I don't know on what basis they have concluded that the trial had failed," Dash said. Defence officials and scientists associated with the trial were tight-lipped on what exactly led to the postponement of the test.

Two indigenously developed surface-to surface missiles were planned to be fired from a mobile launcher in salvo mode from the launch complex-3 of ITR as part of user trial by the Army, defence sources said.

The missiles were randomly chosen from the stock of the Armed forces and the entire launch activities were to be carried out by the Strategic Force Command (SFC) and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research

PTI