Army wanted BrahMos to achieve high standards of accuracy

Declaring that the process of inducting a new version of BrahMos would begin soon, Army on Monday said the trials of the cruise missile were aimed at testing the effectiveness of a special sensor for accurately hitting targets in an urban environment.

"Accuracy was the watchword. We had wanted them to include another sensor (in the missile). That is what these last three trials (were about). Because more than the naval version, in the Army, we wanted the missile to distinguish between similar kind of targets in urban areas. So this third test has been extremely successful," Army vice chief Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj told reporters here.

The process of inducting the new Block-II land attack version of the 290-km range missile would begin soon, he said.

"The process (of induction) will now start. Because now after carrying out the three field trials, the army is absolutely satisfied," he said on the sidelines of a seminar on Fire Power organised by Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

Congratulating the DRDO scientists and the BrahMos Corporation for the success, Thamburaj said the Army had enhanced its aspirations on the capability of the BrahMos weapons system as it wanted greater lethality and accuracy.

Noting that the Army was currently compiling the test reports, he said the missile system provided "tremendous scope and opportunity" for the force.

Thamburaj said each of the three tests beginning February 20 were aimed at "collectively" fulfilling army's requirements and more specifically the effectiveness of the new sensor integrated on to the missile.

"The targets were different (in each test) and the place from where the firing...the launch site...was changed. In this supersonic weapon systems, the lesser the range (of the target) it is more difficult.

"Both the Global Positioning System and the sensors, these are the critical parts. When we fire from 200 km it is that much easier. It gives (the missile) much more time," he said.

Pointing out the importance of 'fire power' during combat, the Army vice chief said the "accuracy, lethality and range" of the fire power made it "a deadly combination."

Giving the example of the direct combat fire power demonstrated last year during the 'Brazen Chariots' army exercise in Pokhran with the use of battle tanks, Thamburaj said it was important to possess both long range and short rage artillery weapon systems "because battlefield is no longer linear, not sequential."

He said: "We got to apply our fire power on targets in depth with our Special Forces operating there during battle. So longer range gives the commander greater flexibility and prosecution of our kind of warfare."

The DRDO on Sunday successfully test-fired the block-II version of the land attack supersonic cruise missile at the Pokhran ranges in Rajasthan when the weapon system hit the target on the bull's eye.