The Indian Navy on Friday successfully carried out the maiden test-firing of the land attack variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a stealth frigate in the Bay of Bengal.
The test-firing is seen as a major capability addition as, so far, the Navy has inducted only the anti-ship variant in many of the frontline vessels.
“This variant of Long Range BrahMos Missile was fired from Indian Naval Ship Teg, a guided missile frigate, on a target on land,” the Navy said in a statement.
Explaining the significance of the development, the statement said the land attack variant provides the naval ships the capability “to precisely neutralise selected targets deep inland, far away from coast, from stand-off ranges at sea.”
Majority of the frontline ships of the Navy, like the Kolkata, Ranvir and Teg classes of ships, are capable of firing this missile.
BrahMos, derived from Russian P-800 Oniks or Yakhont missile, is a joint product of India and Russia.
The present range of the BrahMos is 290 km, which is now in the process of being extended up to 450 km following India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime last year.
