DRDO test-fires BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Odisha coast

Balasore: India successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a test range along the Odisha coast on Saturday. The missile is capable of carrying a warhead of 300 kg.

The missile was test fired from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasor, Odisha, at about 11.33 AM, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials said. "It was an excellent launch and a great success," said a senior DRDO scientist associated with the project.

The two-stage missile - first being solid and the second one, a ramjet liquid propellant - has already been introduced in the Army and the Navy, while a version for Air Force is in its final stages of trial, added the scientists.

Currently, the Army is equipped with three regiments of Block III version of BrahMos missiles. Induction of the first version of BrahMos missile system in the Indian Navy began with INS Rajput in 2005. It is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army, said the scientists.
After two successful test trials of BrahMos missile from INS Kolkata in June 2014 and February 2015, the test firing from INS Kochi on September 30, 2015, had validated the newly commissioned ship's systems. The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress. So far, the Army has placed orders for the BrahMos missile which are to be deployed by three regiments. Two of them are already operational.

BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture, is also in an advance stage of test-launching the air version of the sophisticated missile system and work on the project is in progress.