Sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos Cruise Missile successfully tested from newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam

A tweet from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in this regard said, “Advanced sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today.

Missile hit the designated target ship precisely.” The naval version of the Brahmos has been tested in October and December 2020 from Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai and Rajput-class destroyer INS Ranvijay, respectively.

After the test on Tuesday, the Indian Navy tweeted, “Successful test-firing of the extended-range BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile from INS Visakhapatnam, Indian Navy’s newest indigenously-built guided missile destroyer, represents a twin achievement: Certifies the accuracy of the ship’s combat system and armament complex. Validates a new capability the missile provides the Navy and the Nation.”

The Indian Navy began deploying BrahMos, which has the capability to hit sea-based targets beyond radar horizon, on its frontline warships from 2005. The Naval version has been successful time and again in sea-to-sea and sea-to-land modes.

The BrahMos from ship can be launched as a single unit or in a salvo up to eight in numbers separated by 2.5 second intervals. These salvos can hit and destroy a group of targets having modern missile defence systems. BrahMos as a ‘prime-strike weapon’ for the ships significantly increases their capability of engaging naval-surface targets at long ranges.

A combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by the DRDO and the Mashinostroyenia of Russia. The first test launch of the initial-version Brahmos took place in 2001. Various types of the BrahMos including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested since then.

INS Visakhapatnam, a P15B stealth-guided missile destroyer, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in November last year marking the formal induction of the first of the four ‘Visakhapatnam’ class destroyers, indigenously designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai. The three other upcoming ships in the class are INS Mormugao, INS Imphal and INS Surat.

In the naval variant, the Brahmos missile has been designed to be launched in either vertical or horizontal mode from either moving or stationary naval assets striking at both land and sea targets.