BrahMos missile test-fired from warship INS Kolkata

India today successfully test- fired the 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile from the country's largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka.

The Mazagon Dockyards Limited-built INS Kolkata is yet to be formally inducted into the Navy and will have the capability to launch 16 BrahMos missiles in one go when it enters operational service. The missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series, off the coast of Karwar this morning and all the parameters were met during the test, defence officials told PTI here.

INS Kolkata is the first of its class of warships in the country and is undergoing extensive trials before its planned induction into the Navy in July, they said. The Navy has already deployed BrahMos weapon systems on several of its warships including the Russian-origin Talwar Class vessels. The missile is expected to be carried by all future destroyers and frigates of the Navy and it is also being developed to be offered to the maritime force for being deployed on submarines, the officials said.

The missile has also been inducted into the Army and the Air Force and is being readied for firing from a Su-30MKI combat aircraft. The weapon system will also have its land version inducted into the Air Force. The Army has deployed it in both the eastern and the western fronts along the borders with both China and Pakistan.

The Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace has developed several variants of the missile for different kinds of warfare and is now developing a much-faster hypersonic version of the weapon system.\