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India on Friday successfully tested its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast, an official said. The missile was fired somewhere between Puri and Visakhapatnam as part of the training exercise of the Indian Navy. "The test was successful," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told Indian media.
With a pay-load capacity of 500 kg, Dhanush is a naval version of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi. It is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads and can strike targets in the range of 350 km. With its ability to hit targets on the sea as well as on shore, the missile gives the Indian Navy the capability to strike enemy targets with great precision.
The test of Dhanush comes a day after the Indian armed forces successfully test-fired nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi-II from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, about 230 km from here. Prithvi is India's first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.