BrahMos test fired successfully
India – New Delhi: On Wednesday BrahMos supersonic cruise missile’s new version was successfully tested at the Army’s range at Pokhran, Rajasthan.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials who developed the weapon system in collaboration with the Russians, said with the previous trial of BrahMos failing to hit its target, the DRDO conducted another test launch of the 290 km-range supersonic cruise missile at Pokhran in Rajasthan and claimed that it was a success.
The officials said "The Block-II BrahMos missile was successfully launched at 10.30 hours this morning," The missile "took two-and-a-half minutes to strike its target," they said.
This variant is called the Block II version. BrahMos is essentially an anti-ship missile .The missile flew at a velocity of Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. The normal version flies at Mach 3.
Last time the missile failed to hit the target as the GPS did not have time to correct the error in the inertial navigation system (INS). So the GPS update did not come in. This time, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) ensured that even if the GPS update did not flow in, the missile would hit the target. Modifications were made in the software and simulation runs conducted.
M Natarajan the DRDO Chief said, India will develop a nuclear capable missile with a range of over 5,000 km as part of the Agni series by December next year. Revealing for the first time that the 5,000 km plus range missile dubbed Agni 3 + will be ready for trial by 2010
The Indian Army Headquarters refused to confirm or deny the success of the missile’s test firing, stating that its officers present at the site were evaluating the data on the flight and the mission.
A senior Army officer said "We do not want to hurry up things and make a wrong claim on the test-firing of BrahMos. We are the end-users of the missile and we want to be 100 per cent sure of the weapon system’s effectiveness before making our views on todays test known."
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