Press Trust of India,
Surface-to-Surface version of the Indo-Russian Brahmos cruise missile was today successfully test fired in “user configuration” in the Pokhran desert, giving India a new capability of mounting nuclear warheads on land-based supersonic missiles.
“The 12th land-to-land test firing of the missile was carried out by trained army personnel in the presence of Army Chief Gen J J Singh and other top brass,” a defence ministry statement said here.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has already built a specialised wheeled launch vehicle for the missile and officials said that the supersonic missile with a range of over 300 km was test fired from this mobile launcher.
“The missile followed a pre-determined trajectory at a very low altitude impacting with precision on a designated land target,” officials said .
Singh, who was present at the launch, termed the test as 100 per cent successful. Also present to witness the test firing were Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister Dr M Natrajan and Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive officer of the Brahmos Aerospace programme.
The Sea-to-Sea version of the Brahmos has already been installed on board leading Indian Naval warships with an upgraded advanced fire control system.
“Work is progressing satisfactorily on the Air-to-Ground version of the missile for which the Russian acquired SU-30MKI fighters are being specially modified,” DRDO officials said.
Though the DRDO officials are tightlipped, highly placed sources said that Indian and Russian scientists had reached the breakthrough in producing the submarine launched version of the missile, which will make India one of the few nations in the world to field such a capability.
With today's test firing, sources said the Defence scientists and Army officers were sure of induction of the supersonic missile in the land forces.
Once inducted into the army, the Brahmos land-to-land version would give India the new option of mounting nuclear and conventional warheads on supersonic missiles.
Army presently has raised specialised artillery regiments equipped with solid and liquid fuel, 150 to 300 kms range Prithvi short range missiles and 700 to 2,500 kms Agni I and Angi mediums range missiles.
