A third round test-fire of the surface-to-air ballistic missile Barak-8 was conducted successfully from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) launch pad-3 at Chandipur off the Odisha coast at 10.27 am on Friday.
Notably, the second round test-fire of the missile had failed minutes after taking off from a mobile launcher on Thursday afternoon as the medium range missile had nosedived after rising up to around 500 meter. However, it had been successfully launched earlier in the day.
The missile has the ability to hit its target within a 70-km radius. It is designed to defend against any airborne threat, apart from aircrafts and helicopters, and can also intercept supersonic aircraft and missiles. It is a nuclear-capable ballistic missile weighing around 2.7 tonne and 4.5 meter long and can carry a payload of 60 kg, official sources said.
The missile has been jointly developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Israel Aerospace Industries and Israel’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure.