Context: India has successfully test-fired the extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile which can hit targets at over 400 km range.
Key Points

• The test was carried out under the PJ-10 project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as per which the missile was launched with an indigenous booster.

About the BrahMos test

• The range has been increased from the existing 290km.
• The extended-range variant was tested from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Odisha.
• The test has cleared the decks for India to induct a second class of supersonic, long-range tactical cruise missiles, propelled by a liquid-fuelled booster capable of hitting targets over 500km away.
• The missile featured an indigenous booster and air-frame section along with many other ‘Made in India’ sub-systems.
• The missile was tested for the second time.
• The missile cruised at a top speed of Mach 2.8 (nearly three times the speed of sound).
• The configuration of the existing missile – the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile — has been tweaked to enhance its range.

According to experts, the next class of Indian cruise missiles will be based on solid-fuelled ducted ramjet (SFDR) technology, which can be used for air-to-air missiles as well as long-range supersonic cruise missiles. The technology has been tested by the DRDO twice — on May 30,2018, and February 8, 2019.

Significance of the test

• The significance of the BrahMos test from a mobile launcher was that the cruise missile reached 75% indigenisation with India now having the capability to design the airframe as well as an indigenous liquid-fuelled booster.
• BrahMos missiles are already deployed in the Ladakh theatre along with a limited number of 1,000km range Nirbhay subsonic cruise missiles to counter the missiles and rockets deployed by the Chinese army in Tibet and Xinjiang.
• The two armies are locked in a tense standoff in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
• The successful launch has paved the way for the serial production of the indigenous booster and other indigenous components of the powerful weapon system.

BrahMos Missile

• The missile is an Indo-Russian joint venture.
• The first supersonic cruise missile system known to be in service.
• The BrahMos is a multi-stage missile having a solid propellant in the first stage and the ramjet liquid propellant in the second stage.
• It has land, air and naval variants.
• The missile is capable of carrying a conventional as well as nuclear warhead of 300 kilograms.
• It operates on ‘Fire and Forget Principle’ by adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
• It approaches the enemy target with a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk Cruise Missile System.
• The missile derives its name from the names of two rivers, namely the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
• India is also working on a hypersonic missile, BrahMos-II (K), capable of taking out hardened targets such as underground bunkers and weapon storage facilities at seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) or 8,575 kmph.