India And Russia's BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile Successfully Hits Target, Mounted On New Missile Destroyer

Illustration of a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile test launch. (Wikimedia Commons/Indian Navy)

JAKARTA - India successfully carried out a test launch of a hypersonic cruise missile developed for the Navy, the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) announced on Twitter on Tuesday.

"The advanced sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today. The missile hit a precisely defined target ship," the DRDO said of the test which was held off India's west coast quoting TASS January 11.

In early December, India successfully tested an aerial version of the BrahMos missile, launching it from a Su-30MKI fighter at the Chandipur test site in the eastern state of Odisha.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is produced by the Indo-Russian BrahMos Aerospace Joint Venture. The missile has been developed by the Russian Machinery Manufacturing Research and Production Association (located in the suburb of Reutov near Moscow) and the Defense Research and Development Organization of India.

Illustration of a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile test launch. (Wikimedia Commons/Rakesh Mangraj for Ministry of Defense/Government of India)

The BrahMos missile was tested for the first time in 2001. Different versions of it are operational in all three branches of the Indian Armed Forces, Air Force, Army and Navy.

Meanwhile, the newest missile destroyer Visakhapatnam was delivered to the Indian Navy in November last year. The missile destroyer is capable of carrying 16 BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.

To note, as Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh previously said, the BrahMos missile named after India's Brahmaputra River and Russia's Moscow River is a symbol of the Russia-India strategic partnership.

Minister Singh stressed that the BrahMos missile enhances the country's defense capability to repel threats and raises its military status to an international level.