K-4 Undersea Ballistic Missile
Nuclear capable undersea ballistic missile, code named K-4, was successfully test fired from an undisclosed location in the Bay of Bengal. The test was conducted nearly 45 nautical miles away from Vishakhapatnam coast in Andhra Pradesh.
- The trial was carried out with the support of the personnel of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) while the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) provided all logistics.
- The missile was fired from 20-meter deep and covered more than 700 km before zeroing on the target with high accuracy reaching close to zero Circular Error Probability (CEP).
- The K-4 missile was fired from onboard silos of the Ship Submersible Ballistic, Nuclear (SSBN) submarine.
K-4 has range comparable to Agni-III with major length reduction from 17 metres to 12 metres. The gas-booster designed for K-4 was successfully tested from a submerged pontoon in 2010. The missile is reported to be 12 metres long with a diameter of 1.3 metres and weighs nearly 17 tonnes. It can carry a warhead weighing up to 2 tonnes and is powered solid rocket propellant.
Akash Test Firing
Two more rounds of medium range nuclear capable surface-to-air missile Akash were successfully test fired from a defence test facility off the Odisha coast against two unmanned aerial vehicles demonstrating its ‘killing’ efficiency.
The missile is capable of engaging aerial threats upto a distance of approximately 25 kms. The multi target, multi directional, all weather air-defence system consisting of surveillance and tracking radars, can fly at supersonic speed of around 2.5 Mach and reach a high altitude of 18 kms and as low as 30 meters.
More than 250 industries are engaged in production and supply of various subsystems/components with military/aerospace grade quality for Akash missile and ground systems, which have been developed by the DRDO.
