India test-fires land-attack version of BrahMos missile: Report
India on Tuesday test-fired a land-attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, news agency ANI reported quoting sources. “The target of the missile was on another island there. More details awaited,” reported ANI. “The supersonic cruise missile was testfired at 10 AM today and it successfully hit its target. The test was conducted by the Indian Army which has many regiments of the DRDO-developed Missile system. The strike range of BrahMos missile has now been enhanced to over 400 km,” it added quoting sources.
This development comes amid reports India will carry out “multiple live tests” of the supersonic missile this week amid ongoing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and, in recent days, the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan. As of last month, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had test-fired at least 10 missiles in just 35 days. One of those was BrahMos itself, which was test-fired from INS Chennai on October 18.
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The BrahMos is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile which can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, as well as the fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation. BrahMos-II, a hypersonic version of the missile, is also currently under development.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and was established on February 12, 1998. Its name is a combination of India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva rivers.
