Navy conducts sea trials of BrahMos missile off Goa coast

The Indian Navy today conducted sea trials of the supersonic BrahMos missile with successful firing of the 290-km range cruise missile from its frigate INS Tarkash off the Goa coast.

The missile, launched from the Russian-built warship at 11:00 am, performed the high-level 'C' manoeuvre in the pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target, BrahMos Aerospace chief A Sivathanu Pillai said.

"The launch was carried out by the Navy as part of Acceptance Test Firing (ATF) of the ship," he said.

INS Tarkash, which is an advanced Talwar class frigate, was commissioned on 9 November last year.

INS Tarkash is part of a triad that includes INS Tej and INS Trikand, all of the same class and capable of missile launches.

Of the three warships, built under an over Rs8,000-crore contract signed between India and Russia in July 2006, INS Tej was commissioned on 27 April 2012 and the commissioning of INS Trikand is expected soon.

INS Tarkash is fitted with a range of weapons, including surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile systems, 100 mm medium-range gun, close-in weapon system, torpedo tubes and anti-submarine rockets.

Each of the three ships will be equipped with eight vertically-launched BrahMos missile systems as the prime strike weapon.

The three frigates are designed for a range of maritime operations, that primarily include hunting down and destroying large surface ships and submarines.

The BrahMos cruise missile, jointly developed by India and Russia, is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg and can attain a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 (or 2.8 times the speed of sound).

India is developing different versions of the missile to suit applications on land, sea and air.