BrahMos missile successfully test-fired from Odisha coast
The missile has already been inducted into the Army and the Navy, and the Air Force version is in the final trial stages
Balasore, Odisha: India on Tuesday test-fired an advanced version of the 290km-range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Odisha coast.
The missile was fired from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur at about 10.40am, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.
The missile is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300kg.
“It was a developmental trial of BrahMos," Ravi Kumar Gupta, senior defence scientist and director, directorate of public interface, DRDO, told PTI over the phone.
The two-stage missile, the first one using solid propellant and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the Army and the Navy, while the Air Force version is in the final stages of trials, a defence official said.
The induction of the first version of the BrahMos system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with the missile being deployed onboard the warship INS Rajput, and it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army.
BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture, is also working to develop the air as well as the submarine-launched versions of the missile system.
The Army has so far placed orders for the BrahMos missile to be inducted by three of its regiments, of which two are already operational.
The defence ministry has also given the go-ahead to the Army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh.
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