Brahmos missile with new systems test fired

India on Friday test fired the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile with certain new systems from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off Odisha coast.

The test comes two days after defense scientists conducted a similar trial from the same site.

 "The missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher from the launch complex-3 of the ITR at about 1000 hours," a senior official said.

The supersonic missile, which has a flight range of up to 290 km, is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 200 to 300 kg.

"Today's launch was a developmental trial of the land version of Brahmos incorporating certain new systems," A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and Managing Director of the Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company developing the missile system, told the agency.

 "We are analyzing the data received from various telemetry systems that tracked the missile," Pillai said.

The exact results would be ascertained after thorough analyses, he said.

The trial was significant as it was conducted two days after a similar test fire of the cruise missile from the same site on March 28, a defense scientist said.

The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface land version, was test fired in the presence of scientists of the Defense Research Development Organization, an 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 Navy, he said.

While induction of the first version of the Brahmos missile system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with INS Rajput, it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Indian Army.

The air and submarine launch versions of the missile system are in progress, said the official.

The Army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the Army and two of them have already been inducted operationally.

The Defense 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.

Brahmos Aerospace is also working to develop the air as well as the submarine launch version of the missile system and work on the project is in progress.