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)