BrahMos' 12th test flight successful

Jun 1, 2006, 0:57 GMT

New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) The 12th trial flight of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile being jointly developed by India and Russia was conducted in the Rajasthan desert Tuesday, it was officially announced Wednesday.

'The highlight of this test, carried out in the user-deployment configuration by trained army personnel, met all the mission objectives,' a defence ministry statement said.

'The missile followed a predetermined trajectory at a very low altitude impacting with precision of the designated land target,' the statement added.

The BrahMos missile is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ram jet system that gives it a 300-km range.

Indian Army chief Gen. J.J. Singh and senior officers who witnessed the trial, termed it '100 percent successful', the statement said.

M. Natarajan, the scientific advisor to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO of BrahMos, were present at the trial and 'expressed satisfaction regarding the missiles' performance under extreme climatic conditions', the statement added.

The Indian Navy has already accepted the BrahMos missile system with an advanced fire control system for its warships. Work is also progressing satisfactorily on an air force version that will be delivered from the SU-30MKI platform.

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia jointly developed the BrahMos, which is named after the Bhramaputra and the Moskova, the two major rivers of India and Russia respectively.

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service