Multiple operational firings of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile this week

India kicks off multiple 'live tests' of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday kicked off what will be multiple operational firings of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile this week, in yet another hard-nosed display of its precision-strike capabilities amidst the ongoing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.

The first “live missile test” of the 290-km range BrahMos, which is a deadly conventional (non-nuclear) weapon that flies almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8, was conducted by the Army in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago at about 10 am on Tuesday.

Similar tests will be carried out by the Navy and IAF also in the Indian Ocean Region this week. “The requisite advance warnings to aircraft and ships in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal have been issued,” said a defence ministry source.

The tests come even as BrahMos land-attack missile batteries have already been deployed in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, along with tanks, howitzers, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons, as part of the overall military readiness posture against China. Similarly, some Sukhoi-30MKI fighters armed with BrahMos missiles are also deployed in aibases closer to the Line of Actual Control.