India test-fires BrahMos missile with new systems

, Jul 29: In a bid to enhance indigenous missile manufacturing capabilities, India on Sunday successfully test-fired the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the integrated test range at Chandipur off

coast. The 32nd test-firing was part of the development trials of the missile which has already been inducted into the Army and the Navy.

The objective of the mission was to evaluate some of the newer subsystems which are produced from the Indian industry as part of production stabilisation, BrahMos officials said, adding more than 25 such systems were incorporated in the development missile. The launch was primarily aimed at testing the new power systems, materials for airframe components, guidance scheme and various electric systems, they said.

The data obtained from the test-firing is being analysed for large-scale production by Indian industries, they said. "It was an experimental flight and the missile was tested successfully," ITR Director M V K V Prasad 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 and the Air-Force version is in final stage of trial, he said.

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

The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress, Prasad said. 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 Defence Ministry has also given a go-ahead to Army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh along the China border. BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company headed by a distinguished Indian defence scientist, 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. The last trial of BrahMos was conducted successfully on March 28, 2012 from the same base.

PTI