Unprecedented success by India, test-fires supersonic cruise missile “BrahMos”
30 Sep 2020 18:23:03
In an unprecedented success, India on Wednesday successfully test-fired an extended range supersonic cruise missile BrahMos with an indigenous booster from a test facility off the Odisha coast. The missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture was launched around 10.30 am from a mobile launcher at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) by the Defence Research and Development Organisation off the coast of Balasore in Odisha, as per reports.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated all the personnel of DRDO and team BrahMos for the spectacular mission. Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary DD R&D and Chairman DRDO congratulated the scientific community and industry for this feat.
Jointly developed by the DRDO and NPOM, a leading aerospace enterprise of Russia, the BrahMos missile is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, warships, fighter jets or land.
The launch of the state-of-the-art missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here was successful, Defence Research and Development (DRDO) officials said. “India has today successfully test fired the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos having a range of around 400 km, all the parameters were met during the trial,” said the DRDO officials.
The missile, already operational with the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, is regarded as the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world, the sources said.
BrahMos missile was originally built with a range of 290 km. It is the second time that the extended-range version of BrahMos has been test-fired.
On Sept 30, 2019, a shorter-range land version of BrahMos was successfully test fired from Chandipur ITR. Earlier, the first extended version of the missile, which had a strike range of 450 km, was successfully tested on March 11, 2017.
“BrahMos Missile Featuring Indigenous Booster Successfully Flight Tested”, said an official statement adding, “Today’s successful launch has paved the way for the serial production of the indigenous booster and other indigenous components of the powerful BrahMos Weapon System realising Atmanirbhar Bharat pledge”.
“BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile featuring indigenous Booster and Airframe Section along with many other ‘Made in India’ sub-systems was successfully flight tested for designated range at 1030 hours today on September 30, 2020 from ITR, Balasore in Odisha. It is one more major step in enhancing the indigenous content”, it added.
The BrahMos Land-Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) was cruising at a top speed of Mach 2.8.