Army successfully test-fires Brahmos land attack missile

The army on Saturday successfully test fired the nearly 300-km-range Brahmos supersonic land attack cruise missile in Pokhran.

"At 10 am, 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 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.

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

The 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 the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India and NPO Mashinostroyeniya of Russia.