Prithvi Missile: IGMDP’s First Missile, Prithvi-II, Dhanush and the PAD

The Prithvi missile is India’s first indigenous surface-to-surface ballistic missile, a short-range, liquid-fuelled weapon that DRDO built as the first product of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme of 1983. It first flew from Sriharikota in February 1988, entered Army service in the 1990s and now sits with the Strategic Forces Command, which still fires it in training launches off the Odisha coast. It matters because it was the proof that India could build a guided missile on its own, and because the same airframe later became the base of India’s first missile interceptor.

Most readers carry one wrong picture: that Prithvi is a single missile with a single range. It’s a family. The Army’s Prithvi-I, the Air Force’s Prithvi-II and the Navy’s ship-launched Dhanush each have their own range, and the Prithvi Air Defence interceptor shares the name but does the opposite job, shooting ballistic missiles down. This note separates the four, gives each only the range an official source has published and explains why the family is now being replaced.

Prithvi missile at a glance

The quick facts come first. Every range and date below is from a Ministry of Defence reply or release unless the row names another source.

What is the Prithvi missile?

Prithvi is a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), which means it’s rocket-powered for the first part of its flight and then coasts on a high arc to its target, the way a thrown stone does. Every Prithvi version reaches only a few hundred kilometers, which is what puts it in the short-range class. The name means “earth” in Sanskrit, and it was the first of the five missiles the IGMDP set out to build.

It helps to picture the flight in three parts:

• Boost: the engines burn and push the missile up and toward the target.
• Coast: the engines stop, and the missile follows a curved, unpowered path.
• Descent: the warhead falls onto the target at high speed.

A cruise missile works differently, flying level on an air-breathing engine for most of its journey. The site’s note on cruise and ballistic missiles sets the two side by side.

Prithvi runs on liquid propellant. According to the CSIS Missile Threat project, it’s a single-stage missile with two liquid-fuelled engines, and its designers at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) in Hyderabad chose liquid over solid fuel out of concern that a solid motor could crack during off-road travel in India’s humid climate. That choice solved one problem and created another. A liquid missile has to be fuelled and handled before launch, while a solid motor comes cast and ready, which is why both of Prithvi’s announced successors use solid propellant.

It’s also road-mobile. The ministry describes Prithvi-II as based on a mobile Transporter Erector Launcher vehicle, a truck that carries the missile, raises it upright and fires it. A missile that moves is harder for an enemy to find and destroy before launch.

Prithvi-I, Prithvi-II and Dhanush: the variants and their ranges

The Prithvi family has three attack variants, one for each service. The 2008 Rajya Sabha reply on the IGMDP gave the clearest official split: 150, 250 and 350 km versions for the Army, Air Force and Navy.

The Prithvi-II figure trips people up, so it deserves a line of its own. The 2008 reply put the Air Force version at 250 km, but ministry releases from 2011 and 2013 describe Prithvi-II as a missile of “around 350 km”. Both are official. The honest way to hold them is as a history: the service split began at 150, 250 and 350 km, and Prithvi-II’s stated reach later rose to about 350 km.

Dhanush is the naval version. On 5 October 2012 the ministry announced that India’s “350 km range” Dhanush had been launched from a naval ship off the coast of Balasore, fired by the Strategic Forces Command, and it called Dhanush a short-range strategic ballistic missile. Launching from a ship means the missile has to be steadied on a moving deck, which is the main engineering difference from the land versions.

The Prithvi-II payload, as All India Radio reported for the July 2025 launch, is up to 500 kg, and the missile can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead. In 2011 the ministry said a Prithvi-II had reached its target in the Bay of Bengal with an accuracy of better than 10 meters.

How the Prithvi missile was built and inducted

Prithvi’s story runs from a 1983 sanction to a missile in service within about a decade. The dates that matter:

• 1983: the IGMDP is launched under Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, with Prithvi as its surface-to-surface missile.
• February 1988: the first flight, from the Sriharikota range.
• 1994: Army user trials begin, according to CSIS.
• 1996: formal induction into the Army, according to CSIS.
• 2003: the ministry tells the Rajya Sabha that Prithvi I has been inducted and that Prithvi II and Dhanush are being inducted.
• 2003: Prithvi-II is inducted into the Strategic Forces Command.

The first-flight date needs a word. Most Indian accounts, including the one drawn from Kalam’s own telling of the launch, give 25 February 1988, while the CSIS Missile Threat project lists the first flight test, PE-01, on 8 February 1988. The month and the launch site are not in dispute. For an answer, “February 1988, from Sriharikota” is safe, and 25 February is the date Indian textbooks use.

Induction has the same wrinkle. Many notes say 1994, which is when Army user trials began, while CSIS dates formal induction to 1996. DRDO’s own monograph on its missile work says Prithvi (Army) was cleared for induction one year ahead of schedule with 95% indigenous content, despite the Missile Technology Control Regime’s curbs on the technology India could import. “Inducted in the 1990s” is the safe summary.

The spending was modest by later standards. The 2008 reply put the development cost of Prithvi at Rs 298.95 crore up to 16 January 2008, against Rs 516.86 crore for Akash. The same DRDO monograph notes that one of its scientists was Mission Director for 50 Prithvi and Dhanush launches between 1988 and 2013, a measure of how often the family has flown. The site’s note on the IGMDP covers the wider program, and its profile of APJ Abdul Kalam covers the man who led it.

Who controls Prithvi: the Strategic Forces Command

The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) is the command that manages and fires India’s nuclear-capable missiles, and Prithvi-II has been with it since 2003. The command itself was set up on 4 January 2003, when the Cabinet Committee on Security reviewed the operationalisation of India’s nuclear doctrine and approved the appointment of a Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command “to manage and administer all Strategic Forces”.

That’s the institutional basis to know. There’s no separate Act for Prithvi. The missile sits inside a command structure created by a Cabinet decision, under a doctrine of credible minimum deterrence and No First Use, meaning India keeps a small but survivable arsenal and uses nuclear weapons only in retaliation.

The ministry is direct about Prithvi-II’s place in that structure. Its release on the 2023 launch called the missile “an integral part of India’s nuclear deterrence”, and its 2013 release described it as a “surface-to-surface/nuclear capable” missile. The routine firings are user training launches: the SFC’s own crews fire the missile, and DRDO scientists monitor it. The purpose is to test readiness, not to develop the missile, which has been proven for years.

One analytical point follows from this, and it’s an inference rather than an official statement. Prithvi-II can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead, so an adversary watching a launch can’t tell which it carries. That ambiguity is one reason a purely conventional missile such as Pralay suits the battlefield role better.

Prithvi Air Defence: the missile that became an interceptor

The Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) is an interceptor, a missile built to destroy an incoming ballistic missile in flight, and it was the upper tier of India’s first ballistic missile defense (BMD) system. It borrowed the Prithvi name and technology but not the Prithvi’s mission: Prithvi attacks, PAD defends.

India first tested PAD in November 2006, according to the Arms Control Association, and GlobalSecurity dates that test to 27 November 2006, when the interceptor destroyed a Prithvi used as the “enemy” target at an altitude reported as 40 to 50 km. A second test followed in March 2009. PAD was designed for exo-atmospheric interception, meaning a kill high up, at the edge of or above the dense atmosphere where there’s almost no air drag.

Phase-I of the program paired two interceptors:

• Prithvi Air Defence (PAD): the high-altitude, exo-atmospheric tier.
• Advanced Air Defence (AAD): the lower, endo-atmospheric tier, which makes its kill inside the atmosphere as the warhead comes down.

Two tiers give two chances. If the upper shot misses, the lower one gets a second attempt. The Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV), flown in February 2017, was described at the time as a newer exo-atmospheric interceptor for altitudes above 50 km, and the Arms Control Association had reported in 2013 that it might eventually replace PAD as the upper tier.

Phase-II carried the work further. DRDO flew its AD-1 interceptor for the first time on 2 November 2022, for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles, and it tested the Phase-II AD endo-atmospheric missile on 24 July 2024. The site’s report on DRDO’s ballistic missile defense tests explains the two-phase design. The same interceptor family gave India its anti-satellite test in 2019, covered in the note on Mission Shakti, and it now feeds the layered shield planned under Mission Sudarshan Chakra.

Prithvi missile today: user launches and successors

Prithvi-II is still in service and still fired. The ministry’s recent releases record three user launches from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha:

• 15 June 2022: a training launch at about 7:30 pm, which the ministry called “a proven system”.
• 10 January 2023: a training launch that “struck its target with high accuracy”.
• 17 July 2025: Prithvi-II and Agni-I fired under the Strategic Forces Command, both described as short-range ballistic missiles.

That label on the 2025 release is worth noticing. The ministry filed Agni-I, which All India Radio put at 700 to 900 km, in the same short-range class as Prithvi-II, a reminder that class labels move while the stated ranges hold. The site’s Agni missile series note follows the longer-range line.

The replacement is already in view. In June 2013, DRDO chief Avinash Chander said the tactical 150 km Prithvi would be withdrawn and replaced by Prahar, a solid-fuelled, quick-reaction missile. Since then the larger successor has been Pralay. DRDO flew it first on 22 December 2021 and described it as a solid-propellant, quasi-ballistic missile, one that mostly follows a ballistic arc but can steer, with a range of 150 to 500 km from a mobile launcher. Defence reporting since December 2022 has described Pralay as intended to replace the Prithvi. No ministry release has said so in those words, so the succession is best written as reported, not as announced. The site’s Pralay trial report follows its user trials.

The logic of the handover is clear from the design. Pralay is solid-fuelled, so it needs no fuelling before launch, it carries a conventional warhead and it can manoeuvre, which makes it harder to intercept. Prithvi’s liquid engines, the choice that made sense in the 1980s, are now its main limitation.

Why the Prithvi missile matters, and its limits

Prithvi’s significance is less about range than about firsts. It was the first missile of the IGMDP to fly, the first to be inducted and, in the ministry’s 2013 words, the first missile developed by DRDO under the program. It gave India a working liquid-propulsion and guidance base at a time when the MTCR restricted what could be bought abroad, and its airframe became the starting point for missile defense.

The limits are just as clear:

• Liquid fuel: preparing a liquid missile takes time and handling that a solid missile doesn’t need.
• Short range: even at about 350 km, Prithvi reaches only targets close to the border.
• Dual capability: one missile type carrying either warhead blurs the line between a conventional and a nuclear strike.

Each limit is answered by a newer missile. Agni took over longer ranges, Pralay is taking the conventional role, and PAD’s descendants carry the defensive work. Prithvi’s own role is shrinking, which is the normal fate of a first-generation weapon that did its job.

How to study the Prithvi missile for exams

The Prithvi missile sits in GS Paper III, under science and technology (indigenisation of technology) and security, and in Prelims science and technology current affairs. The site’s hub on missiles of India places it among every other Indian missile by role.

The topic is tested for classification and difference, not for trivia. Mains 2021 GS Paper III asked “How is S-400 air defence system technically superior to any other system presently available in the world?“, a question that rewards knowing where India’s own interceptors, PAD among them, sit in a layered defense. Science and Technology accounts for 192 of the 1,403 questions in the site’s Prelims question bank, and missile variants and ranges are a recurring theme there.

Revise these until they’re automatic:

• Program: first missile of the IGMDP, launched in 1983 under Kalam.
• First flight: February 1988, from Sriharikota.
• Ranges: 150, 250 and 350 km for the Army, Air Force and Navy versions; Prithvi-II later “around 350 km”.
• Fuel and mobility: single-stage, liquid-fuelled, road-mobile.
• Operator: the Strategic Forces Command, set up on 4 January 2003.
• PAD: exo-atmospheric interceptor, first tested in November 2006.
• Successor: Pralay, 150 to 500 km, solid-fuelled and conventional.

Four confusions cost marks:

• Prithvi and PAD: Prithvi attacks; PAD intercepts.
• Prithvi-II’s range: 250 km in the 2008 reply, around 350 km in later releases; both are official at their dates.
• Dhanush and Prithvi: Dhanush is the ship-launched Prithvi, not a separate missile family.
• Prithvi and Agni: Prithvi is liquid-fuelled and short-range; the Agni series is solid-fuelled and longer-range.

A small comparison keeps the ballistic family in order:

Prithvi is a small topic with a long reach. Learn the three variants with their dates, the SFC and the PAD offshoot, and you’ve got the thread that runs from the 1983 program to today’s missile defense. The aspirant who can explain why a liquid-fuelled, dual-capable missile is being replaced by a solid-fuelled, conventional one has understood the direction of India’s missile policy, not just one weapon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Practice Questions

Prelims

1. Consider the following statements about the Prithvi missile: 1. It was the first missile developed by DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. 2. It is a solid-fuelled intermediate-range ballistic missile. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

• (a) 1 only
• (b) 2 only
• (c) Both 1 and 2
• (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: (a) Prithvi is a liquid-fuelled short-range ballistic missile, not a solid-fuelled intermediate-range one.

2. Dhanush, often seen in news about India’s missile tests, is best described as:

• (a) a naval, ship-launched version of the Prithvi ballistic missile
• (b) an anti-tank guided missile of the Army
• (c) a surface-to-air missile of the Air Force
• (d) a submarine-launched cruise missile

Answer: (a) The ministry describes Dhanush as a 350 km ballistic missile launched from naval ships.

3. Consider the following statements about the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD): 1. It is an interceptor designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles. 2. It was the lower, endo-atmospheric tier of Phase-I of India’s ballistic missile defense. 3. It was first tested in 2006. Which of the statements given above are correct?

• (a) 1 and 2 only
• (b) 1 and 3 only
• (c) 2 and 3 only
• (d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (b) PAD was the upper, exo-atmospheric tier; the Advanced Air Defence was the endo-atmospheric tier.

4. The Strategic Forces Command, which carries out training launches of Prithvi-II, was set up in:

• (a) 1998
• (b) 2003
• (c) 2008
• (d) 2016

Answer: (b) The Cabinet Committee on Security approved a Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Forces Command, on 4 January 2003.

5. Consider the following statements: 1. Pralay is a quasi-ballistic missile with a stated range of 150 to 500 km. 2. Pralay, like Prithvi, uses liquid propellant. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

• (a) 1 only
• (b) 2 only
• (c) Both 1 and 2
• (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: (a) Pralay uses a solid propellant rocket motor, while Prithvi is liquid-fuelled.

Mains

1. The Prithvi missile was the first product of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. Assess its contribution to India’s self-reliance in missile technology. (15 marks, 250 words)
2. Distinguish between liquid-fuelled and solid-fuelled ballistic missiles with Indian examples. Why is India moving from Prithvi to Pralay? (10 marks, 150 words)
3. Explain the two-tier structure of India’s ballistic missile defense, with reference to the Prithvi Air Defence and Advanced Air Defence interceptors. (15 marks, 250 words)
4. What is the role of the Strategic Forces Command in India’s nuclear command structure? How do user training launches support credible minimum deterrence? (10 marks, 150 words)
5. Dual-capable missiles that can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads create risks of misreading in a crisis. Discuss with reference to India’s short-range ballistic missiles. (15 marks, 250 words)