BrahMos Cruise Missile Test Fired From Mobile Launcher

BrahMos Cruise Missile Test Fired From Mobile Launcher


The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, jointly developed by India and Russia, was successfully tested from the Interim Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here today.Fired from a mobile launcher at the ITR, 15 km from here, at 11.21 am, the sleek missile met all mission parameters, defence sources said. This was the 14th launch of the missile, which has a range of 290 km. It has also been tested from a naval destroyer in the past.Taking off vertically from launch pad three of the ITR, BrahMos followed its predetermined course, leaving a trail of thick white smoke, the sources said. After the sophisticated missile blasted off from the launcher, its trajectory was tracked by ground instruments and radars for detailed analysis, they said.BrahMos was developed under an Indo-Russian Joint Venture programme following an agreement signed by the two countries on February 12, 1998. The name BrahMos is derived from the names of the two great rivers of India and Russia -- the Brahmaputra and Moskva -- and the missile is jointly produced by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia under the project codenamed PJ-10.Top missile scientist Sivathanu Pillai, the CEO of BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd, and about 30 Russian scientists were present during today's launch of the missile in fine weather. BrahMos was fired for the first time on June 12, 2001 while the last trial was conducted on February 4 from the ITR. The two-stage BrahMos is powered with a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ramjet system.The eight-metre sleek missile weighing three tonnes has been configured so that it can be launched from the ground, ships, submarines and aircraft.