India tests supersonic cruise missile BrahMos (corrected)

Mar 4, 2009, 10:52 GMT

New Delhi - India on Wednesday successfully test-fired the land version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the western state of Rajasthan, news reports said.

The surface-to-surface missile failed to hit its target during an earlier test on January 20.

The Block II BrahMos missile was successfully launched and took two and a half minutes to strike its target at the Pokhran firing range, an unnamed official from the Defence Research and Development Organization was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.

The BrahMos, a missile developed under an Indo-Russian joint venture begun in 1998, has been test-fired more than a dozen times since 2001.

The Indian Army and Navy have begun introducing earlier Block-I versions of the missile.

The BrahMos has a range of 290 kilometres and can carry conventional warheads weighing up to 300 kilograms. It is capable of travelling at Mach 2.8, or nearly three times the speed of sound.

The latest land attack version of the missile has been developed for the army.

During the January 20 launch, the missile deviated from its course midway through the test and failed to hit its target.

Officials at the Defence Research and Development Organization said a 'defect' in the software of the homing device of the missile had been rectified, leading to the successful test Tuesday.

Variants of the 8-metre-long missile can be fired from land, sea or air.

The name BrahMos is derived from two great rivers of India and Russia - the Brahmaputra and the Moskva.