The ‘Strike One’ Corps of the Indian Army’s South Western Command successfully carried out the firing of a Brahmos Block 3 land attack cruise missile system in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands on 3rd May 2017.
It was the second launch in two days for the long-range tactical weapon which is being jointly developed by India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM). Brahmos is also in service with the Indian Navy and an air-launched version is due to be test-fired soon.
According to the Indian MoD, the latest firings of the supersonic cruise missile were carried out in full operational land-to-land configurations from Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL) at full range. The missiles are said to have met all flight parameters while conducting high level and complex manoeuvres, hitting the target with desired precision, in both the trials demonstrating its accuracy of less than one metre.
This is the fifth consecutive time that the Block 3 version of Brahmos LACM has been successfully launched and hit the land-based target using the “top-attack” capability of this new variant.
The Indian Army already has three Brahmos regiments and is reportedly forming a fourth.
The Army tests come on the heels of the first test of the land attack version of Brahmos, launched by an Indian Navy frigate on 21st April. The anti-ship variant is already in service with the Indian Navy.
Meanwhile the air-launched version of Brahmos – which made its long-awaited first flight on a specially modified Su-30MKI frontline strike fighter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in June 2016 – is scheduled to perform a first test firing soon.