Brahmos missile flight tested successfully off Orissa coast

Balasore (Orissa), Mar.28 (ANI): India on Wednesday successfully testfired version three of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off the Orissa coast.

The test firing took place at around 11.22 a.m., a Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) release said.

The release said that the missile flew through the designated 290 kilometer distance at Mach 2.8 and achieved high precision with steep dive once again.

The Network of telemetry stations and down range ships confirmed that the missile followed the pre designated flight path.

When contacted, Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai confirmed that it was a text book launch achieving 100 percent results.

"Today's trial was special, as for the first time, the Brahmos missile was launched in a 'steep drive' mode," Dr. Pillai, the chief of Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company.

The missile was completely integrated at the BrahMos Integration Complex at Hyderabad. The test flight was witnessed by senior officers from the armed forces. he Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Brahmos, along with Mr. S Som, Project Director, Brahmos and Rear Admiral S Mohapatra, Executive Director were present during the launch.

"The missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher from the launch complex-3 at about 1122 hours and the trial was successful," a defence official said.

The supersonic missile is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 200 to 300 kilograms.

The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface army version, was test fired in the presence of senior army officials and DRDO scientists, a defence official said.

The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the army and the navy.

The army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the army. Two of them have already been inducted operationally. he Defence Ministry has also given a go-ahead to the army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh along the China border. (ANI + inputs)