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| India-Pakistan |
| India test fires supersonic land attack cruise missile |
| 2009-03-04 |
| NEW DELHI: India test fired the land attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at the Pokharan range in Rajasthan Wednesday, six weeks after its failed test on Jan 20, an official here said. "The analysis of the parameters of the missile flight will take some time," a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official said while confirming the test firing of the missile. The BrahMos missile, a joint venture of India and Russia, failed its test trial on Jan 20 by missing the target. Since cruise missiles fly at low altitudes, they have the ability to evade enemy radars and air-defence systems. They are also easier and cheaper to operate as precision strike weapons. The Indian Army has already begun inducting the land-fired version of the BrahMos, with the first battery entering service in June 2007. Each battery is equipped with four mobile launchers mounted on heavy 12x12 Tatra transporters. The army plans to induct three more such batteries. The anti-ship naval version has also been inducted into service with its integration on the destroyer INS Rajput, with two other ships of the same class to be similarly equipped. The missiles will also be mounted on the three 7,000 tonne Kolkata class destroyers currently being constructed at Mumbai's Mazagon docks. The missile, which takes its name from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, has a nearly 300 km range and carries a 300 kg conventional warhead. It can achieve speeds of up to 2.8 Mach or nearly three times the speed of sound. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #3 Supersonic land attack cruise missiles were one of my favorite toys as a kid, which is probably why I got in trouble with the law so often. |
| Posted by: Cynicism Inc 2009-03-04 19:20 |
| #2 Informed sources described it as “a difficult mission” because the target was just 50 km away instead of the normal range of 290 km. Besides, the missile had to perform “a discriminatory role”: it had to hit the desired target out of a cluster of small targets, resembling “a factory-type situation.” The time given to the missile to perform manoeuvres and hit the target was much less than the normal flight. But these “constraints were overcome” with the Global Positioning System (GPS) update coming in correctly and the missile homed in on the desired target, sources said. The missile flew at a velocity of Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. The normal version flies at Mach 3. Last time the missile failed to hit the target as the GPS did not have time to correct the error in the inertial navigation system (INS). So the GPS update did not come in. This time, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ensured that even if the GPS update did not flow in, the missile would hit the target. Modifications were made in the software and simulation runs conducted. |
| Posted by: john frum 2009-03-04 17:33 |
| #1 "The Block II BrahMos missile was successfully launched at 1030 hours this morning," The missile "took two-and-a half-minutes to strike its target in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan," "The new seeker system is unique and it will help us to hit the targets, which may be insignificant in terms of size, in a cluster of large buildings. |
| Posted by: john frum 2009-03-04 05:47 |