Indian Army Carries Out Two Successful BrahMos Missile Tests Over 48 Hours

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — The Indian army successfully carried out two tests of an upgraded version of the BrahMos missile over the past two days, the press service of the Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

"South Western Command’s Corps ‘Strike One’ successfully carried out the firing of the advanced BRAHMOS Block III land attack cruise missile system in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands on the 3rd of May 2017 for the second consecutive day. The successive launches reinforce the formidable weapon’s precision strike capability," the statement reads.

The Indian Defense Ministry added that this launch was the fifth successful test of the Block III version of BrahMos in a row, which is "an incredible feat not achieved by any other weapon system of its genre."

BrahMos, a word combining Brahmaputra and Moscow, is a short-range supersonic missile, which has been used by the Indian Navy since 2005. The missile can carry a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds. BrahMos missiles can also be launched from submarines, as well as aircraft and land-based launchers.

BrahMos Aerospace, the developer of the missile, was formed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia in 1998. It produces weapons systems using Russian and Indian technologies.