BrahMos missile test fired from INS Kochi

Commissioned on September 30, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kochi successfully test fired the supersonic BrahMos missile on Sunday morning. The firing from this newly-commissioned indigenous guided missile destroyer was conducted at an undisclosed location in the Arabian Sea off the West coast of India.

BrahMos is a surface-to-surface missile jointly developed by India and Russia and is among the fastest cruise missiles in operations around the globe. "This is a significant step in the operationalisation of the Navy's guided missile stealth destroyer," said an Indian Naval officer.

The target for test firing was a decommissioned warship of the Indian Navy, at a range of 290 km from INS Kochi. The vessel was Alleppey, which was decommissioned on March 13 this year after having served in the Indian Navy since 1980 as a minesweeper.

INS Kochi is second in the series of Kolkata class vessels. In August last year, INS Kolkata was commissioned by prime minister Narendra Modi. The next would be INS Chennai, which is under production. Production of these three stealth destroyers were approved one and a half decade ago, that is May 2000 under Project 15A with Mazgon Dock Limited.