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"The missile flew in the designated complex
trajectory conducting large manoeuvres and steep
dive. This is the first time in the world that
a supersonic dive has been realised by a cruise
missile," said BrahMos Aerospace spokesperson
Praveen Pathak.
The Indian armed forces termed it a "perfectly
precise flight", he added.
The 290-km range BrahMos missile, which can travel
2.8 times the speed of sound, was tested for the
Army from the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur
in here, some 230 km from Orissa capial Bhubaneswar,
dDrector of the test range S.P. Dash told IANS.
"The launch met all mission requirements.
It was a 100 percent fantastic launch," he
said.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony congratulated the
armed forces and the defence scientists associated
with the project for the "success".
The launch was conducted in the presence of Director
General of Artillery Lt. Gen. Vinod Nayanar, BrahMos
Aerospace CEO and MD A.S. Pillai, scientists from
the Defence Research and Developments Organisation
(DRDO), industry representatives and officers
from different units of the army.
The sophisticated cruise missile has already
been inducted into the Indian Army and the Navy.
The Block-II version capabilities to hit precisely
a small target in a cluster of larger targets
were demonstrated from Pokhran recently.
"This new capability has made it even more
lethal," Pathak said in a statement.
The BrahMos missile is a two-stage vehicle that
has a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant
ramjet system. It can carry conventional warheads
up to 300 kg for a range of 290 km.
The cruise missile is capable of being launched
from multiple platforms based on land, ships,
submarines and aircraft, and currently the focus
in on for the development of its air-launched
and submarine-launched versions.
India and Russia are jointly further developing
the BrahMos missile, named after the Brahmaputra
(India) and Moskva (Russia) rivers.
A regiment of the BrahMos-I variant, consisting
of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers
on 12x12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command
posts, among other equipment, is already operational
with the army.
(IANS)
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