Supersonic BrahMos cruise missile test-fired successfully

 
Jointly developed by the defence scientists from India and Russia, the 8.4-metre long sophisticated missile weighing 3,000 kg was test-fired from a mobile launcher at the launch pad number three of the premier missile testing centre at around 11:35 am.

“The test-firing was a user trial and preliminary data indicates that it was a success. However, detailed analysis of all the flight datas are being carried out,” defence sources in Chandipur said.

BrahMos, which has already been inducted into the Indian Army as well as the Navy, can be launched from a ship, aircraft, submarine as well as land-based mobile automatic launchers. The missile has the capability to fly at 2.8 times the speed of sound and hit a target at a distance of 290 km carrying conventional warheads up to 300 kg.

A significant feature of BrahMos, which has been named after the rivers Brahmaputra in India and Moskva in Russia, is that it can be successfully used during “surgical strikes” like bombing on the terrorists’ camps without causing any collateral damage.

If defence sources are to be believed, the BrahMos missiles could have been widely used had India decided to go for surgical strikes on the terrorists’ camps across the border in Pakistan after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

BrahMos had its first successful test flight from the Chandipur ITR on June 12, 2001. It was last test-fired on March 21, this year, from Navy warship INS Ranvir which was anchored in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.