New Delhi: In yet another major step towards boosting indigenous missile technology, India on September 30 successfully test fired the extended range version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which has emerged as a primary precision-strike conventional weapon for the armed forces, from the integrated test range at Balasore.

The test, the second of the extended range BrahMos missile, took place from a land-based mobile launcher at 10.30 am. It comes at a time when the original 290-km range BrahMos has already been deployed in Ladakh as well as Arunachal Pradesh during the ongoing military confrontation with China.

The armed forces have already inducted the 290-km range land and warship-based versions of the BrahMos missiles, which fly almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8, over the last decade.

A sleeker version of air-breathing missile was also test-fired from Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets last year. These air-to-ground BrahMos missiles can conceivably be used for pinpoint strikes on terror camps located deep inside enemy territory, or to take out underground nuclear bunkers, command-and-control centres and other high-value military targets like aircraft carriers on the high seas, from long stand-off distances.

The first Sukhoi-30MKI squadron, armed with BrahMos missiles, was commissioned at Thanjavur in January this year. With a combat radius of almost 1,500-km without mid-air refueling, the Sukhois combine with the BrahMos missiles to constitute a formidable weapons package.

The government had earlier approved the deployment of Block-III version of the BrahMos missiles, which have “steep dive, trajectory manoeuvre, and top-attack capabilities” for mountain warfare, in Arunachal Pradesh as a deterrent against China.

With India joining the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016, which “removed the caps” on the range of the missile developed jointly with Russia, the range of the missile has been extended to 450-km. The MTCR basically prevents the proliferation of missiles and drones over the range of 300-km.