The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) today successfully tested an extended range Pinaka (Pinaka-ER) Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher System at Rajasthan’s Pokhran Range.
The system is jointly designed by laboratories of DRDO’s Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune and the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Pune.
The DRDO, along with the Army, conducted a series of performance evaluation trials of these industry produced rockets at Field Firing Ranges during the last three days.
The Pinaka-ER is the upgraded version of the earlier version of Pinaka which has been in service with the Indian Army for the last decade. The system has been designed in the light of emerging requirements with advanced technologies enhancing the range, the Ministry of Defence said.
In June, the DRDO had successfully test-fired enhanced range versions of indigenously developed Pinaka rockets and 122mm Caliber rockets from a Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) in Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
At the time, the Defence Ministry had said that the enhanced range version of the Pinaka Rocket System can destroy targets at distances up to 45km.
The development of the enhanced Pinaka system was taken up to achieve longer range performance. All the flight articles were tracked by various range instruments in order to check the accuracy of the rockets hitting the target. The indigenously-developed proximity fuzes for Pinaka rockets have also been tested.