New Delhi: India on Wednesday successfully test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The supersonic cruise missile has a feature of hitting targets at more than 400-km range. DRDO chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the entire team of scientists involved in the mission, he said that ”this will lead to adding more indigenous content to the supersonic cruise missile.”
The test was operated under PJ-10 project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, under which the missile was launched with an indigenous booster. The missile was launched from a land-based facility in Odisha. It is the second test-firing of the extended range version of the missile which has an indigenously developed airframe and booster.
The BrahMos is a ramjet supersonic cruise missile, it can be launched through any means whether submarines, ships, fighter jets, or land. The joint venture between the DRDO and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia developed the missile. BrahMos is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service and the first version of BrahMos weapon complex in the Indian Navy commenced in 2005 with INS Rajput as the first ship. The Indian Army has also inducted three regiments of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile.
According to defence sources, the second of the extended range BrahMos missile, took place from a land-based mobile launcher at 10.30 am when the original 290-km range BrahMos has already been deployed in Ladakh as well as Arunachal Pradesh during the ongoing military confrontation with China. The first Sukhoi-30MKI squadron, armed with BrahMos missiles, was commissioned at Thanjavur in January this year.