Pune: A year after first demonstration flight of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on Sukhoi-30 fighter jet in Nashik, the missile was flight tested on Wednesday from Sukhoi-30MKI against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal.
The defence ministry said that the test firing against a target in the Bay of Bengal reflected the capability of the armed forces to launch the weapon from the air, apart from land and sea, completing the cruise missile triad for the country.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) said it became the first air force in the world to successfully launch a surface attack missile of this category and that the weapon provided it with a much desired capability to strike from large stand-off ranges on any target in sea or land with ‘pinpoint accuracy’ in all weather conditions.
“The capability of the missile coupled with the superlative performance of the Su-30 aircraft gives the IAF a strategic reach and allows it to dominate the ocean and the battlefields,” the IAF said.
The successful test firing of the 2.5-tonne missile, which flies almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8 and has a range of 290 km, paved the way for its induction into the IAF.
Earlier in June 2016, the demonstration flight was carried out at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Nashik, with BrahMos weapon on the long-range Sukhoi-30 fighter, giving a major fillip to the BrahMos air-launched flight test programme.
The range of the missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture, can be extended up to 400 km as certain technical restrictions were lifted after India became a full member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) last year.
“BrahMos, the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, created history on Wednesday after it was successfully flight-tested for the first time from the IAF’s frontline fighter aircraft Sukhoi-30MKI against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal. The successful maiden test firing of BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from Su-30MKI will significantly bolster the IAF’s air combat operations capability,” the ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed delight over the successful maiden test flight of BrahMos cruise missile from an Air Force jet. “Delighted on the successful maiden test firing of Brahmos air-launched cruise missile from Su-30MKI. Congratulations to all those associated with this remarkable feat,” he tweeted.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated the ‘Team BrahMos’ and the scientists at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the ‘historic achievement’.
Dr S Christopher, Chairman of DRDO, congratulated the scientists and engineers for the ‘excellent textbook kind of flight test’.
Giving details of the test firing, the ministry said the missile was ‘gravity dropped’ from the Su-30 fuselage, and the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and straightway propelled towards the intended target at the sea. The launch from the aircraft was smooth and the missile followed the desired trajectory before directly hitting the ship target.
Brahmos ALCM, weighing 2.5 tonnes, is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on India’s Su-30 fighter aircraft modified by state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to carry weapons.
The IAF said the integration of the missile on the aircraft was a very complex process involving mechanical, electrical and software modifications of the Su-30 jet.
The missile was fired by the test crew comprising Wg Cdr Prashant Nair and Wg Cdr KP Kiran Kumar. The missile test was witnessed by Dr Sudhir Mishra, Director General (BrahMos), along with senior IAF officials, scientists and officials from DRDO and BrahMos.
Brahmos is a joint venture between DRDO of India and NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia.
