Successfully test fired for the Indian-made Pinaka 214mm MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket System 0202131.

'Pinaka', which has undergone several tough tests since 1995, is already inducted into the armed forces. Today's test was conducted by the personnel from Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) Pune unit at Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) firing point-2 at Chandipur, they said.

Truck-mounted, the Pinaka multiple rocket rocket launcher has a range of 40 km and can launch 12 rockets in less than a minute, thereby neutralising a target zone almost four square kilometres in size. One salvo each (12 rockets) from the battery of six launchers is capable of neutralising at a time a target area of 3.9 sq km.

Work on this multi-barrel rocket launcher first got underway in the mid-1980s and, by 1992, the prototype system had been rolled out. The Pinaka multiple rocket launcher system is now inservice with the Indian army, today, 80 vehicles have been built.

The system's capability to incorporate several types of warheads makes it deadly for the enemy as it can even destroy their solid structures and bunkers, a defence official said.