NEW DELHI, March 4 (KUNA) -- India successfully test fired a new version of the 290-km range supersonic BrahMos cruise missile on Wednesday.
The missile is an Indo-Russian joint venture and is the same missile which had on January 20, after a successful take-off, deviated from its course mid-way and failed to hit the intended target.
"The Block-II BrahMos missile was successfully launched at 1030 hours this morning," said officials of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which have developed the weapon system in collaboration with Russia scientists.
They added that the missile took two-and-a half-minutes to strike its target in the Pokhran firing range in India's western state of Rajasthan.
The test launch was witnessed by Deputy Army Chief (Planning and Systems) Lt. Gen. M.S. Dadwal.
The latest land attack version of the missile has been developed for the Indian Army and the weapon was fired in a vertical-launch configuration, the officials further stated.
According to the officials, a "defect" in the software of the homing device of the missile had been rectified leading to its successful test today. (end) py.ema KUNA 041359 Mar 09NNNN