Indian Army successfully test-fired BRAHMOS land attack missile

POKHRAN, RAJASTHAN (PTI): Indian Army on Saturday successfully test-fired the nearly 300-km range BRAHMOS supersonic land attack cruise missile here.

"At 1000 hrs on Saturday, the Indian Army fired BRAHMOS land-attack cruise missile successfully against a designated target at Pokhran test range in Rajasthan, demonstrating the weapon's supreme operational capability," defence officials said.

The missile was test launched by a Mobile Autonomous Launcher (MAL) deployed in full configuration.

The test-fire, carried out in the user-deployment configuration by trained army personnel, met all the mission objectives, they said.

"BRAHMOS missile system, the most lethal and potent weapon system for precision strike available with Indian Army, has proved again its effectiveness in today's successful launch," said Sudhir Mishra, Chief of BrahMos Aerospace.

Dr. S Christopher, Secretary Defence R&D and DG DRDO congratulated Indian Army and BrahMos Aerospace on the successful flight test.

The Indian Army has already inducted three regiments of BRAHMOS in its arsenal. All are equipped with Block-III version of missile, which was tested on May 8 and 9 this year.

The land-attack version of BRAHMOS has been operationalised in the Army since 2007.

The fire-and-forget missile has the capability to take on surface-based targets by flying a combined high-low trajectory, thus evading enemy air defence systems.

Inclusion of the powerful weapon system in Indian Army has given it a distinct operational advantage to knock down any enemy target even in the most difficult and hidden terrains, the officials said.

The missile, having a range of 290-km and a Mach 2.8 speed, is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against sea and land targets.

BrahMos is a joint venture between DRDO of India and NPOM of Russia.