Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos scored once again in its 34th launch on Wednesday off Visakhapatnam, hitting a decommissioned vessel with accuracy.
As it took off vertically from a naval warship, reached an altitude of 14 km, levelled out and started cruising at three times the speed of sound, it performed “a double manoeuvre in S-form” and hit the decommissioned ship, about 290 km away.
“The sheer velocity and power of the hit made the missile rip through the ship’s hull,” said a release from BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.
The missile, which carries only conventional warheads, was inducted into the Navy in 2005 in the Rajput-class guided missile destroyers and in other warships. Two regiments of the Army have BrahMos. Plans are on to conduct flight trials from aircraft and submarines.
BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia, is an anti-ship missile that can reach targets 290 km away. It can hit targets both in sea and on land. It has two stages. Its propulsion consists of a solid propellant booster stage and a liquid propellant ram jet system. It can be launched from ships, submarines, fixed and mobile launchers on silos in land and aircraft.
The missile has a fast reaction time — it can be launched within a few minutes. Once information about the target is received, it is transmitted to the missile’s computer and the fire control system provides it with the most optimal trajectory. The missile travels in the designated path, which is constantly updated by the satellite navigation system.
