BrahMos Block II version tested successfully
30 Mar 2009
New Delhi: The Block II Land Attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired for the second time yesterday at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan on Sunday. This version belongs to the Block II series of the missile.
Dr A. Sivathanu Pillai, chief executive officer and managing director, BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd, said the missile was now ready for induction into the army.
The BrahMos was fired from a mobile launcher at the Army's firing range at 11.15 am and impacted its target more than 50 km away. The missile approached its target at a velocity of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound).
Dr Pillai informed the media that the test firing exhibited ''a perfect flight,'' with the missile ''discriminating'' correctly between multiple targets and hitting ''the bull's eye.''
"The missile was successfully launched at 1115 hours in the morning and in the next two-and-a-half minutes, it hit the bull's eye in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan," officials said.
Army's director general of military operations Lieutenant General AS Sekhon, Artillery School commandant Lt Gen Rao and additional director general (artillery) Major General V K Tiwari were also present.
Apart from Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, the launch was also witnessed by DRDO's chief controller and DRDL director, P Venugopalan.
Dr Pillai also said data from the missile's global positioning system (GPS) was received as well.
This is the third launch in the series for the Block II version for the Army. While the first test was a failure, the second was apparently inconclusive, or a third test was sought. This has been now been provided.
With this launch, the Army's requirements for the land attack version of the missile with an advanced seeker and software for hitting the given target out of a cluster of targets had been met and the version was ready for induction into the Army, a press release from the Defence Research and Development Organisation said.
Jointly produced by Russia and India, the BrahMos' normal range is 290 km.
