NEW DELHI: Amid ongoing tensions with China, India is ready to showcase the enormous firepower of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile by the end of the month.
The three defense forces would carry out multiple shots of the missile system developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in the Indian Ocean region in the last week of this month.
The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is the world’s fastest operating system of its kind and recently DRDO has expanded the range of the missile system from the existing 298 km to about 450 km.
Defense services are scheduled to conduct multiple BrahMos test shots in the last week of November against different targets in the Indian Ocean region. The tests would help defense services further improve the missile system’s performance, government sources told ANI.
In the past two months, DRDO has successfully tested new and existing missile systems, including the Shaurya missile system that can hit targets over 800 km and technology demonstration vehicles for hypersonic missile technology.
Recently, the Indian Air Force had flown its Sukhoi-30 aircraft from Halwara Air Base in Punjab and launched the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at an old warship that was acting as its target in the Bay of Bengal area. . The air-launched version of the missile has been used to equip an Air Force squad at Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.
The squadron’s BrahMos-equipped aircraft were also deployed near the northern borders shortly after the conflict with China began and 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives in the Galwan Valley in a clash with the Chinese army.
Last month, the Indian Navy also carried out test firing of the Brahmos missile from its INS Chennai warship to demonstrate its ability to strike targets at distances of more than 400 km offshore.
India is also working to find export markets for the supersonic cruise missile that has been largely indigenous to the DRDO under its PJ 10 project.
After the launch of the India-Russia joint venture in the late 1990s, the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile has become a powerful weapon for the three armed forces that are using them for different roles on different trains.
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