Army gets 2nd regiment of Brahmos missiles

The regiment includes four-to six road-mobile missile launchers, each carrying a battery of four cruise missiles. The missile, which travels at a supersonic speed of 2.8 Mach, packs enough punch to destroy an enemy target 290 km away.

The second regiment was handed over to the Army by Union Minister of State for Defence M Pallam Raju at a function here in the presence of Brahmos chief A Shivthanu Pillai. Army received its first Brahmos regiment way back in 2007 when Gen J J Singh was Army chief. It led to the formation of N816 missile regiment.

“Due to its versatility and user friendly operation, Brahmos emerged as the most reliable system for the Indian Armed Forces. We have guns for near range and Smerch Rockets for range of 75 km. But beyond 75 km range, Brahmos is the only system which has added tremendous fire power capability to Indian Armed Forces for targets as deep as 300 km,” said Lt Gen Vinod Nayanar, Director General in charge of artillery in the Army.

Pillai claimed Brahmos could hit targets with great precision and has devastating power because it carries nine times more kinetic energy than sub-sonic cruise missiles.

The Navy received the first version of Brahmos cruise missile in 2005, after which the Army got its version.

An Indian Air Force version of the cruise missile, which would be fitted to Su-30 MKI is in the works.