India test-fires BrahMos from indigenous warship INS Kolkata successfully

June 11, 2014

The 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile was successfully test- fired from country’s largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. The combat ship is yet to be formally inducted into the Indian Navy. The missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series, off the coast of Karwar and all the parameters were met during the test.
INS Kolkata:
The ship built by Mazagon Dockyards Limited is the first of its class of warships in the country and is going through extensive trials before its planned induction into the Navy in July2014. The warship can fire 16 BrahMos missiles in one go when it enters operational service.
Current status of BrahMos
The BrahMos weapon systems has already been deployed on several Indian Navy’s warships including the Russian-origin Talwar Class vessels. The missile is expected to be deployed on all future destroyers and frigates of the Navy and it is also being developed to suit submarines.
The Army and the Air Force have also inducted the missile and it is being readied for firing from a Su-30MKI combat aircraft.
Land version of this weapon system will also be inducted into the Air Force. The Army has positioned it in both the eastern and the western fronts along the borders with both China and Pakistan.
BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture of India and Russia, has developed several variants of the missile for different forms of warfare and is currently developing a much-faster hypersonic version of the missile.