BHUBANESWAR, July 29: India on Sunday test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile as part of a user trial by the army from a test range at Chandipur.

The missile, which has a flight range of up to 290km, is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300kg.

“The cruise missile was test-fired from a ground mobile launcher from the launch complex-3 at about 10:30 hours and all data is being retrieved for analysis,” defence sources said.

The missile, a surface-to-surface army version, was test-fired as part of user trial by the army, they said. The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the army and navy, a defence official said.

The induction of the first version of Brahmos missile system into the Indian Navy commenced in 2005 with INS Rajput. The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress, he said.

The army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the army and two of them have already been inducted operationally.

The Defence Ministry has given a go-ahead to the army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh along the border with China.

Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company headed by an Indian scientist, is working to develop the air and the submarine launch version of the missile system.

The last trial was conducted on March 28 from the same base and it was successful.

By arrangement with Times of India