Balasore, Orissa: India Thursday successfully test-fired the 290-km range BrahMos cruise missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off the Orissa coast.
The supersonic cruise missile with precision strike
capability was test-fired from a mobile launcher at 1100 hours
from the launch pad No. 3 of the ITR, defence sources said.
"The trial was successful," they said.
The missile, which can fly at 2.8 times the speed of
sound, is capable of carrying conventional warheads up to 300
kg for a range of 290 km. The missile can effectively engage
ground targets from an altitude as low as 10 meters, they
said.
The 8.4 meter-long missile is a two-stage vehicle that
has a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ram-jet
system.
The Balasore district administration, on the advice of
defence authorities, had temporarily shifted 3,220 persons
belonging to 401 families residing within two km radius of the
launch pad to two nearby shelter centres as a safety measures
during the missile test.
BrahMos is capable of being launched from multiple
platforms like submarine, ship, aircraft and land based Mobile
Autonomous Launchers (MAL).
One regiment of the 290-km range BrahMos-I variant, which consists of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous
launchers on 12x12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command posts, among other equipment, is already operational in the Indian Army, the sources said.
The Indian Navy has begun the process of inducting the
first version of BrahMos missile system in all frontline
warships from 2005.
The Army is in the process of inducting 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 urban
environments.
BrahMos can potentially be used for 'surgical
strikes' at terror training camps across the border without
causing collateral damage, the sources said.
The first flight test of BrahMos missile was conducted
on June 12, 2001 at the Integrated Test Range and the last was
successfully carried out on September 5, 2010 from the same
place.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 02, 2010, 14:14