India successfully test fires upgraded version Pinaka rocket; Armoury of security forces gets massive boost

Balasore, May 31: India successfully test-fired the upgraded version of Pinaka rocket with enhanced range and guidance system from Chandipur in Odisha for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Notably, it is a huge success for India’s point of view and will increase the strength of Indian security forces.

 

The test of an upgraded version of Pinaka rocket was carried out from a multi-barrel launcher at about 10.35 AM today from the firing point of the Proof & Experiment Establishment (PXE) under DRDO, a day after two rounds of the successful trial took place on Wednesday.

The upgraded version of Pinaka rocket has now been transformed into a guided version, with a navigation, guidance and control kit developed by the Research Centre, Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad. The RCI comes under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The upgradation helped in enhancing the range and accuracy of Pinaka i.e from 40 km to 70 km now.

Radars, electro-optical systems and telemetry systems at the defence range at Chandipur tracked and monitored the rocket all through its flight path. The guided version is Pinaka mark-II, which evolved from Pinaka mark-I. It can fire a salvo of 12 rockets in 44 seconds.

A defence official said, “The successful trial of the upgraded Pinaka rocket has reinforced the technological strength of the country in converting the unguided systems into weapons of high precision and accuracy.”

Importantly, the upgraded Pinaka or guided Pinaka has been developed jointly by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, the RCI, and the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, for the Indian Army. The PXE, Chandipur, provided the range and launch support.

In January last year, India successfully test-fired the Pinaka rocket from Launch Complex-III at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha for an enhanced range.