By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 21, 2018: India on Tuesday successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Chandipur-on-Sea off Odisha coast in Balasore district, about 225 kilometre from here.

BrahMos is the first indigenously built missile whose life has been extended from 10 years to 15 years and is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg.

It was test-fired from a mobile launcher from launch complex number three of the Integrated Test Range (ITR).

The missile is developed by the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace and has a top speed of Mach 2.8.

BrahMos, one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world and can be launched from ships, aircrafts and submarines.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated Team BrahMos and DRDO for the successful flight.

“Smt @nsitharaman congratulates Team Brahmos & @DRDO_India for successful flight test carried out at 1040 hrs on 21 May 2018 from ITR, Balasore to validate BRAHMOS missile life extension technologies developed for the first time in India. The successful test will result in huge savings of replacement cost of missiles held in the inventory of Indian Armed Forces,” Ministry of Defence tweeted.

The Indian Army became world’s first land force to deploy the tactical BrahMos and now, the Army operates three regiments equipped with various configurations of BrahMos land attack cruise missiles (LACM) which has been operationalised since 2007.

The Indian Army has already inducted three regiments of BrahMos in its arsenal, all equipped with Block-III version.

As per reports, India will develop next-generation BrahMos missiles, which will be lighter than the earlier ones and can be mounted on aircraft or torpedos.