Balasore: In a bid to give a cutting edge to its missile prowess, India on Sunday successfully test fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the integrated test range at Chandipur off Odisha coast.
The missile with a flight range of up to 290 km is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg, a defence official said, adding the missile, a surface-to- surface Army version, was test fired as part of user trial by the Army.
The cruise missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of ITR at about 1030 hours and all data was retrieved for analysis, defence sources said.
“It was an experimental flight and the missile was tested successfully,” ITR Director M V K V Prasad said.
The missile has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
This makes BrahMos one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world.
The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the Army and Navy and the Air-Force version is in final stage of trial, he said.
It was the 32nd flight test of the BrahMos. The latest test was carried out at about 10.30 a.m.
While induction of the first version of sophisticated Brahmos missile system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with INS Rajput, it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army.
The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress, he said.
The Army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the Army and two of them have already been inducted operationally.
The Defence Ministry has also given a go-ahead to Army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh along the China border.
Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company headed by a distinguished Indian defence scientist, is also working to develop the air as well as the submarine launch version of the missile system and work on the project is in progress.
The last trial of Brahmos was conducted successfully on March 28, 2012 from the same base. (Agencies)
