New Delhi: In a boost to maritime power, the Indian Navy November 1 successfully test fired BRAHMOS Supersonic Cruise Missile from a destroyer based in the Navy’s eastern fleet. The missile successfully destroyed its target with pinpoint precision.
The Navy posted on the social media platform X (earlier known as Twitter), stating, “An Indian Navy destroyer of the eastern fleet carried out the successful firing of a BRAHMOS missile in the Bay of Bengal. The missile achieved all mission objectives.”
This test follows two previous BRAHMOS tests in the last three weeks. Just a fortnight ago, (October 18), Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKI jets flew from Thanjavur Air Base in Tamil Nadu, covering a distance of 1,500 kilometres and launched a BRAHMOS-A missile (BRAHMOS’s air-launched variant), successfully destroying its target in the Bay of Bengal. Another test, occurring a week before the Sukhoi Su-30MKI test ( October 11), spanned two days, during which the IAF and the army jointly fired four BRAHMOS-ER extended-range supersonic cruise missiles.
These tests were conducted as part of the pre-induction trials of the supersonic missile.
The BRAHMOS missile, first tested in June 2001, was jointly developed by the Russian NPO Mashinostroyenia and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The baseline version of the missile can strike targets at a maximum range of 290 kilometres, with a speed of 2.9 Mach, or 2.9 times the speed of sound. Since then, the missile has undergone iterative developments, enabling it to strike targets at ranges of more than 500 kilometres.
