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Supersonic BrahMos test fired successfully
India reinforced its armoury Tuesday again after it successfully test fired a nuclear capable supersonic cruise missile BrahMos from a firing range near Pokhran in Rajasthan.
The 8-meter-long, 300 metric tons in weight, the supersonic BrahMos with a strike range of 290-km is capable of touching a speed of 2.
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8 times that of sound and can be fired from land, sea or air. Comparatively cheaper but more accurate and easier to handle, the Cruise missile has the capacity to invade enemy radars and air defence system as fly at low-altitudes.
The test is conducted against the backdrop of the heightened tension between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. Defence Minister A K Antony, however, told reporters in New Delhi that the test was pre-planned and not directed against any country.
The test was earlier scheduled for January 17 but was postponed till today, perhaps owing to delay in transportation of the missile and bad weather in Jaisalmer.
Named after India’s Brahmaputra River and Russia’s Moscow River, BrahMos is being produced by an Indo-Russia military joint venture, BrahMos Aerospace Limited, and today’s test fire is said to be part of its ongoing user trials.
The BrahMos will be inducted in the air force besides army and navy. But the submarine and air-launched versions of BrahMos will take some time from successful completion. One regiment of the Army though is armed with the BrahMos missile but that is different from the version that was test-fired today.
This was the third test fire. The first test-firing of the BrahMos was conducted on June 12, 2001 at the Interim Test Range Chandipur in Balasore (Orissa). And it was tested for the first time from a “universal vertical launcher” fitted on a moving warship’s deck in the Bay of Bengal on December 18.