Balasore: India on Wednesday successfully
test fired Brahmos supersonic cruise missile as part of a user
trial by the Army from the test range at Chandipur off Odisha
coast.
"The missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher
from the launch complex-3 at about 1122 hours and the trial
was successful," said a defence official.
The missile, which has a flight range of up to 290 km,
is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 200 to 300
kg.
The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface Army version,
was test fired as part of user trial by the Army, he said.
The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the
second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted
into the Army and Navy, he said.
While induction of the first version of Brahmos missile
system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with INS Rajput,
it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army.
The air launch version and the submarine launch version
of the missile system are in progress, said the official.
The Army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile
to be deployed by three regiments of the Army and two of them
have already been inducted operationally.
The Defence Ministry has also given a go-ahead to the
Army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile
system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh along the China
border.
Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture
company headed by a distinguished Indian defence scientist, is
also working to develop the air as well as the submarine
launch version of the missile system and work on the project is
in progress.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 11:49