BrahMos cruise missile test-fired from Orissa coast
*BALASORE, ORISSA:* At 1135 hours on Sunday the advanced version of BRAHMOS
Block?II was tested successfully from the interim test range (ITR) at
Chandipur.
The missile flew in the designated complex trajectory conducting large
manoeuvres and steep dive. This is the first time in the world that a
supersonic dive has been realised by a cruise missile.
Eye-witnesses from the Indian armed forces termed it as a perfectly
precise flight.
The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony congratulated the armed forces and
the defence scientists associated with the project with this success.
The launch was conducted in the presence of Director General of
Artillery, Lieutenant General Vinod Nayanar; Dr. AS Pillai, CEO & MD,
BrahMos Aerospace; scientists from DRDO and Industry representatives
along with officers from different units of the army.
The sophisticated cruise missile has already been inducted into the
Indian Army and Navy. The Block-II version capabilities to hit precisely
a small target in a cluster of larger targets were demonstrated from
Pokhran recently.
This new capability has made it even more lethal.
The BRAHMOS missile is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant
booster and a liquid propellant ramjet system. The missile can fly at
2.8 times the speed of sound.
It can carry conventional warheads up to 300 kg for a range of 290 km.
The cruise missile is capable of being launched from multiple platforms
based on land, ship, sub-marines and air, and currently the focus in on
for the development of its air-launched and the submarine-launched versions.
India on Sunday test-fired the 290-km range BrahMos cruise missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off Orissa coast as part of trials by the defence forces to fine-tune its capability.
"It was a user's trial by the defence forces," said a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official soon after the missile blasted off from a mobile launcher at about 11.35 AM from ITR's launch complex-3.
BrahMos-II can potentially be used for surgical strikes, including at terror camps, without causing collateral damage.
BrahMos-II can potentially be used for surgical strikes, including at terror camps, without causing collateral damage.
The missile can fly at 2.8 times the speed of sound carrying conventional warheads up to 300 kg for a range of 290 km and can effectively engage ground targets from an altitude as low as 10 metres.
Though the missile is capable of being launched from multiple platforms, focus in on the development of its air-launched and the submarine-launched versions.
BrahMos, developed jointly with Russia, is a supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, ships, aircraft and land-based Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL).
A regiment of the BrahMos-I variant, consisting of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12x12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command posts, among other equipment, is already operational in the Army.
Similarly, the Navy has begun inducting the first version of BrahMos missile system in all its frontline war ships since 2005, defence sources said.
The Army, on its part, is set to induct two more regiments of the BrahMos Block-II land-attack cruise missiles (LACM), which have been designed as 'precision strike weapons' capable of hitting small targets in cluttered urban environments, they said.
The BrahMos Block-II variant has been developed to take out a specific small target, with a low radar cross-section, in a multi-target environment.
The BrahMos missile is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ram-jet system.
The first flight test of the BrahMos was conducted on 12th June, 2001 at the ITR at Chandipur in Orissa coast and the last trial of the naval version of BrahMos was carried out in a vertical mode successfully on 21st March, 2010 from Indian navy ship INS Ranvir off Orissa coast.
