Press Release, October 22

The Indian Air Force today conducted a successful test firing of BRAHMOS surface-to-surface cruise missile in combat mode at 0930 hrs at the Trek Islands in Car Nicobar Islands region off India’s Eastern coast. The successful launch comes a day after another successful test of the weapon in practice configuration by the IAF carried out in the same location. 

The twin successful launches were conducted by the IAF’s user unit in operational configuration to assess mission readiness and swift deployment of the tactical missile over long distance.  

In the first test conducted at around 1400 hrs on 21st of October, BRAHMOS land-attack weapon in practice configuration flawlessly followed the desired flight trajectory and flew for its nearly full range of 300-km before successfully hitting the pre-set target with “bull’s eye accuracy”, top level defence officials, who witnessed the launch, confirmed. 

The second test was successfully carried out at 0930 hrs today during which the formidable BRAHMOS SSM in combat mode once again struck at the designated land target with perfect precision, the defence officials said.

The two consecutive tests were conducted by the IAF to confirm operational preparedness and combat readiness of BRAHMOS SSM to validate the missile’s precision hit capability over long distance, the officials said. 

The Indian Air Force, which is inching closer to deploy the powerful BRAHMOS air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) on its Su-30MKI strike fighter platform, has already operationalised the mobile, land-based BRAHMOS Squadron since 2014. 

Jointly developed by India and Russia, the multi-role, multi-platform BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile has also been operationalised in the Indian Army and Navy.

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