Balasore: India on Wednesday successfully

test fired Brahmos supersonic cruise missile as part of a user

trial by the Army from the test range at Chandipur off Odisha

coast.

"The missile was test fired from a ground mobile launcher

from the launch complex-3 at about 1122 hours and the trial

was successful," said a defence official.

The missile, which has a flight range of up to 290 km,

is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 200 to 300

kg.

The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface Army version,

was test fired as part of user trial by the Army, he 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, he said.

While induction of the first version of Brahmos missile

system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with INS Rajput,

it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army.

The air launch version and the submarine launch version

of the missile system are in progress, said the official.

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 also 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 China

border.

Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture

company headed by a distinguished Indian defence scientist, is

also working to develop the air as well as the submarine

launch version of the missile system and work on the project is

in progress.

PTI