India carries out successful supersonic cruise missile test

VISAKHAPATNAM: India successfully fired a submarine-launched version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Bay of Bengal, earning the position of being the first country to have this technology, Times of India reported Wednesday.

The missile successfully travelled the range of over 290km, BrahMos CEO A Sivathanu Pillai told PTI. He said the performance of the missile during the test launch, which was fired from an underwater pontoon near Visakhapatnam, was "perfect".

“BrahMos missile is fully ready for fitment in submarines in vertical launch configuration which will make the platform one of the most powerful weapon platforms in the world,” Mr Pillai said.

Following the successful tests of ship and ground-launched versions of the missile, Indian Army and Navy have put the weapons in service.

Earlier, India carried out a long-range subsonic cruise missile test Nirbhay, which was indigenously built, but the missile failed to hit the target in its maiden test. A week later, the first test of submarine-launched version of BrahMos proved to be successful.