BrahMos test-fired
BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile, on Wednesday lifted off from the Indian Naval ship "Rajput' speeding in the Bay of Bengal and destroyed a target on an uninhabited island in the Nicobar group of islands situated in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. It was the 15th launch of BrahMos but this was the first time that the missile was fired from a ship towards a target on land. "We kept a target on the sand dunes of the island. It was hit. It was a precision-mission. This is an important mission for us because the Navy is acquiring the capability, with the same BrahMos, to destroy targets on the coast,' said A. Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. The previous 14 flights of BrahMos were from ship to ship, land to ship, and from land to land. Dr. Pillai, who spoke from the Campbell Bay island, called it "a fantastic test.' The launch was executed by trained Naval personnel on board the Rajput. The test-firing took place at 10.30 a.m. BrahMos travels at a speed more than three times that of sound and can hit targets 290 km away. It is a joint product of India and Russia. Dr. Pillai said Defence Minister A.K. Antony phoned him up to congratulate the missile technologists of BrahMos Limited, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia on the success. Mr. Antony said it was a major breakthrough in enhancing the capability of BrahMos.