BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile successfully test-fired from INS Kochi

India on 1 November 2015 successfully test-fired BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile from INS Kochi off the west coast. BrahMos, in its 49th test-firing, successfully destroyed target ship Alleppey which was stationed 290 km away, the missile’s full range.

The purpose of the test was to validate capabilities of BrahMos and INS Kochi, the country’s newest stealth-destroyer, which was inducted into the navy on 30 September 2015.

INS Kochi has the advanced capability of carrying a total of 16 BrahMos missiles in two 8-cell vertical launch systems, besides other sophisticated weapons and sensors.

Features of BrahMos Missile

• It is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service and is capable of carrying a conventional and nuclear warhead of 300 kilogram.
• It is a two-stage missile having Solid propellant in the first stage and Ramjet liquid propellant in the second stage.

• It can be launched from land, Sea, Sub-seas and air.
• It operates on Fire and Forget Principle by adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
• It approaches the enemy target with a top speed of Mach 2.8; which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
• The missile has been developed by the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It is a joint venture between Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the missile derives its name from the names of two rivers, namely the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
• While the navy and army versions of the missile were inducted in 2005 and 2007 respectively, the air version is still in the testing stage.

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