India on Tuesday testfired the short range surface-to-air Trishul missile from Integrated Test Range of Chandipur, 15km from Balesore.

This is the third sucessful test, after conducting one each on Sunday and Monday, ITR sources told rediff.com

The missile, which has a range of nine kilometres and can carry a 15kg warhead was tesfired from a mobile launcher at 1320 pm, they said.

The length of the Tuesday missile was three meters in length and 200cm in diameter.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed the Trishul under its integrated guided missile development programme. The first missile was testfired in 1983.

The latest trial was intended to gauge the ability of the missile in different parameters, defence sources said.