Twin Success For Pinaka Guided Rockets

Amid escalating tensions with Pakistan, India on Monday successfully carried out two tests of Pinaka guided extended range rockets from Pokhran ranges.

According to a PIB release, the weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising an advanced navigation and control system. In both the missions, the weapon systems impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies. Telemetry Systems tracked and monitored the vehicle all through the flight path. All the mission objectives have been met.

The indigenously developed Guided Pinaka will significantly boost the capability of the artillery to make precision hits, it added.

An upgraded version of the rocket, with a guidance system and an enhanced range, had touched the 70-km mark in the last trial in May 2018. The first successful test was conducted in January 2017.

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 multi-barrel rocket system Pinaka is an area weapon system to supplement the existing artillery gun at ranges beyond 30 kilometres, having quick reaction time and high rate of fire, the DRDO website says.