India successfully test-fires BrahMos cruise missile from Odisha

India on Monday successfully conducted the first test of the BrahMos cruise missile under life extension program along the Odisha coast.

The missile was test fired from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur along the Odisha coast at about 10.40 am

BrahMos is the first Indian missile whose life has been extended from 10 to 15 years.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated Team Brahmos and DRDO on the successful launch of the cruise missile.

Taking to Twitter, Sitharaman said:

Smt @nsitharaman congratulates Team Brahmos & @DRDO_India for successful flight test carried out at 1040 hrs on 21 May 2018 from ITR, Balasore to validate BRAHMOS missile life extension technologies developed for the first time in India. 1/2

— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) May 21, 2018

The Indian Army has already inducted three regiments of BrahMos in its arsenal. All are are equipped with Block-III version of the missile.

The land-attack version of BrahMos has been operationalised in the Indian Army since 2007.

The fire-and-forget missile has the capability to take on surface targets by flying a combined hi-lo trajectory, thus evading enemy air defence systems.

(with PTI inputs)