India test-fires two BrahMos missiles from land and air platforms
17 Dec 2019
India today successfully conducted separate trials of two variants of supersonic cruise missile BrahMos to check its capability to hit targets on land and sea with precision and accuracy, defence ministry said.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Air Force (IAF) and BrahMos Aerospace jointly conducted the two successful BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles tests - one each from land and air platforms.
The first missile launch was from a land based mobile launcher, where most of the components were indigenous, including the missile airframe, fuel management system and DRDO designed seeker.
The land-attack version of the missile was test-launched from a mobile autonomous launcher at Launch Pad-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on the Odisha coast at around 8.30 am.
The second launch of the missile was carried out by Indian Air force (IAF) from SU-30MKI platform against a sea target. The Air Force variant was fired in the afternoon when the IAF fighter jet flew from Kalaikunda airbase and launched the missile towards an air-borne target over the Bay of Bengal.
The test conducted in user configuration, revalidated the ship attack capability of the advanced air-launched cruise missile. During the test, the missile was gravity dropped from the air combat platform's fuselage and the two-stage weapon’s engine fired up and the missile straightaway propelled towards the intended target positioned at the sea, piercing it with pin point accuracy.
Earlier, on 22 May 2019, IAF successfully tested the missile against a land-based target in the Car Nicobar Islands. The BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) promises to bolster the air combat capability of IAF from stand-off ranges, a defence ministry release stated.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the DRDO, BrahMos and Air Force teams for the successful tests. Director General BrahMos, Sudhir Mishra, Defence Research and Development Laboratory director Dashrath Ram, and director Integrated Test Range Binoy Kumar Das were present during the trials.