After incurring a staggering cost of Rs 282.68 crore on its development, the central government on Wednesday announced the closure of work on the multi-mission Trishul missile.
"Development of Trishul missile system has been completed as technology demonstrator," Defence Minister A K Antony said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
He said till January this year, a sum of Rs 282.68 crore had been incurred on the development of the system. A number of trials of the missile had been unsuccessful.
The minister said the country's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) has not been abandoned, but was near completion.
He said under the programme, surface-to-surface missiles Agni and shorter range Prithvi have been successfully test fired and were in various stages of induction.
For the development of technology demonstrator Agni version and 250 and 350 km range Prithvi missiles, the cost incurred has been Rs 372.29 crore, he said.
But it was the surface-to-air Akash missile, which had cost the exchequer the highest investment of Rs 516.86 crore for development.
The missile has also taken the maximum time to develop. But the recent spate of user trials of the missile had been accurate within the desired limits of lethality, Antony said.
