India successfully test-fired the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a test range along the Odisha coast.
- It was test-fired to validate some new features.
- The missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher stationed at Launch pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Odisha.
- Its “life extension” technologies are developed for the first time in India by the DRDO and team BraHmos.
- It is developed by BrahMos Aerospace and DRDO, and manufactured by state-owned Electronics Corporation of India.
- It was the first time a ground-launched BrahMos equipped with an indigenous seeker was successfully tested.
- BrahMos is a two-stage missile, the first stage being solid and the second one, a ramjet liquid propellant.
- This missile has already been introduced in the Indian Army and Navy, while the Air Force version had undergone successful trial.
- It will result in huge savings of replacement cost of missiles held in the inventory of the armed forces.
- The last test firing of a BrahMos surface-to-surface (Block III) cruise missile took place in March at the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan.
