India test-fires BrahMos missile successfully

India on 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 11 am from 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 measure during the missile test.

BrahMos is capable of being launched from multiple platforms like submarine, ship, aircraft and land based Mobile Autonomous Launchers. 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, which have been designed as 'precision strike weapons' capable of hitting small targets in urban environments.

BahMos 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.