Supersonic cruise BrahMos missile testfired

Balasore (Orissa), Feb 4: BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile developed under an Indo-Russian joint venture project, was today successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range(ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea, about 15 km from here.

The army version of the missile, with a range of 290 km, operating on the principle of fire, with a capacity of carrying a conventional warhead upto 200 kg, was testfired from the ITR launch complex at 1215 hrs.

The nine-metre-long missile could be carried aboard a ship or a submarine with some modification. The missile can fly upto a height of 14 km at twice the speed of sound when fired from a ship.

It was charged by a solid propellant and has a preset trajectory and could change its course to strike 20 km from the target.

ITR sources said this would the 9th BrahMos missile test fired.

The last BrahMos was test fired on November 30, 2005.

The missile, ITR sources said, has a diameter of 670 mm, weighing about three tonnes and could fly at near surface level but that shortens its range to 120 km. The first missile was first test-fired on June 12, 2001. The name of the missile is derived from the Brahmaputra river and the Russian capital Moscow. The missile can fly at zero level.

The first ship-borne test of BrahMos, was conducted in February 2003 after a couple of tests at the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

The two countries have planned to induct BrahMos into their armed forces after launching commercial production.

Sources said BrahMos, which could be launched from land, sea, sub-sea or air-based platforms, was likely to be configured to be launched from the newly inducted Sukhoi 30 MKI fighters in the IAF.

The test carried out in the user-deployment configuration all the mission objectives. The missile followed a predetermined trajectory at a very low altitude impacting with precision on the designated land target, sources said. The flight trial was witnessed by the officials of the Defence Research Development Organisation(DRDO), Integrated Test Range(ITR) and scientists from Russia.

BrahMos was currently one of the few supersonic cruise missiles in the world and the missile system has already been accepted by the Indian Navy with advance Fire Control System for its warships. Work is also progressing satisfactorily on the SU-30MKI version.

The missile was under development as a joint venture between the Defence Research&Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) (Russia) under BrahMos Aerospace.

The missile took off shortly after noon-at 1215 hrs and landed 290 km away in the Bay of Bengal. Today's launch was to prove the missile was suitable for launching attacks on targets located both on land and at sea.

It could cruise at a speed of 3 Mach at altitude of 15 km and could be launched from a variety of platforms--fixed and mobile, on land, surface ships, submarines and aircraft.

Brahmos is the first and only supersonic cruise missile that uses liquid ''ramjet'' technology.

A two-staged vehicle, its propulsion consisted of a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ''ramjet'' system, sources said.

UNI