The supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully test-fired on Monday, under extreme weather conditions, as part of the service life extension programme for the Army.

“The missile followed the designated trajectory and the key components functioned perfectly. BrahMos has again proved its all-weather capability, flying in sea state 7, with waves as high as nine metres,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement. (Sea state is the degree of turbulence at sea, generally measured on a scale of 0 to 9 according to average wave height).

The missile was fired from a mobile autonomous launcher at 10.17 a.m. from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore, Odisha.

BrahMos, a joint venture between India and Russia, has been demonstrated in various configurations in land-attack, anti-ship and from the air. The Army and the Navy have already inducted the missile, while the air launched variant is undergoing trials.

It has a strike range of around 290 km and is described as the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated the scientists, officials of Brahmos and the Army for the successful test firing of the missile. Senior Army officials and scientists from DRDO and Brahmos witnessed the trial.

“Brahmos missile has established itself as a major force multiplier in modern-day complex battlefields with its impeccable land-attack, anti-ship capabilities with multi-role and multi-platform abilities,” the Ministry said.

Monday’s test launch comes close on the heels of two trials of the missile conducted on May 21 and 22 in which the major sub-systems manufactured indigenously under the ‘Make in India’ campaign were tested.

(With PTI inputs)

Sign up to receive our newsletter in your inbox every day!

Please enter a valid email address.

The Hindu Science Quiz: Life of Pi and the son of Earth and Sky 

Are you ready to face a sudden ban on all single use plastic items

Our existing notification subscribers need to choose this option to keep getting the alerts.