Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully fired from a test range along the Odisha coast to validate some new features.
The missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture, was tested from a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore at 10.40 a.m., Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials said.
The trial was conducted to validate its “life extension” technologies developed for the first time by DRDO and team BrahMos, said an official of the ITR.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratualated DRDO scientists and team BrahMos for the successful launch of the missile with new technology. “Smt @nsitharaman congratulates Team Brahmos & @DRDO_India for successful flight test carried out at 1040 hrs on 21 May 2018 from ITR, Balasore to validate BRAHMOS missile life extension technologies developed for the first time in India,” her office said in a twitter post.
Two-stage missile
The successful test will result in huge savings of replacement cost of missiles held in the inventory of the armed forces, it said.
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 the Air Force version had witnessed asuccessful trial, the DRDO scientists said.
BrahMos variants can be launched from land, air, sea and under water. India successfully launched the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jet for the first time against a target in the Bay of Bengal in November, 2017, they said.
At least two Su-30 squadrons with 20 planes each are planned to be equipped with the missile, which will be 500 kg lighter than the land/naval variants. The range of the three-tonne missile has been extendeed from its earlier 290 km to 400 km and the variant was successfully tested in March 2017, they said.
Increased range
According to the scientists, increasing the missile’s range from 400 km to further 800 km is now possible after India’s induction into the Missile Technology Control Regime in June 2016. Prior to that, India was bound by restrictions that limited the range of the missile, to less than 300 km.
Currently, the Army is equipped with three regiments of Block 111 version of the missile. Induction of the first version in the Navy began with INS Rajput in 2005. It is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army, said the scientists.
After two successful tests of the missile from INS Kolkata in June 2014 and February 2015, the test-firing from INS Kochi on September 30, 2015, 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 missile which are to be deployed by three regiments.
