NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday successfully test-fired the extended-range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The missile was test-fired from the Indian Navy’s newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam on the Western seaboard.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in a tweet said, "Advanced sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today."
The missile hit the designated target ship precisely, DRDO added.
After the test on Tuesday, the Indian Navy tweeted, “Successful test-firing of the extended-range BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile from INS Visakhapatnam, Indian Navy’s newest indigenously-built guided missile destroyer, represents a twin achievement: Certifies the accuracy of the ship’s combat system and armament complex. Validates a new capability the missile provides the Navy and the nation.”
This was the third missile test from a naval platform of the naval version of Brahmos, which was tested in October and December 2020 from Indian Navy warships. The missile can hit targets both on water and land.
The range of the initial version was fixed at 290 km and it flies at a speed of 2.8 mach. The extended-range version of BrahMos was developed after India's full membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which removed caps on the range of the cruise missile. The plan has been to initially extend the range of attack to 450 km.
INS Visakhapatnam, a Project 15B stealth-guided missile destroyer, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in November last year marking the formal induction of the first of the four ‘Visakhapatnam’ class destroyers, indigenously designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai.
The air version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired from the supersonic fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30 MK-I from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha on December 8 last year. In this copybook flight, the missile launched from the aircraft followed the pre-planned trajectory, meeting all mission objectives.
The BrahMos missile can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land and has been inducted into all three services -- Army, Navy and Air Force.