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Sources at the test site told this newspaper that the Indo-Russian missile failed to hit its target after it was fired by the Army on Tuesday morning. The test-firing, first ever to be conducted by the Army after the missile was inducted in June 2007, was witnessed by Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and other senior officers.
The supersonic cruise missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher at the Pokharan ranges, barely a hundred kilometres away from the Pakistan border. However, Defence Minister A K Antony clarified that the test was pre-planned and not directed towards any country.
While DRDO has been silent on the test-firing, sources said the missile did not meet its ‘operational parameters’ and deviated from the pre-planned course, failing to hit its target. They said the test was a setback but ‘quiet normal’ during the development of any new missile system. More firing trials will be required to identify faults in the system.
The BrahMos, which has been described as a stealthy cruise missile that can deliver a 200 kg payload to a target 280 km away at speeds exceeding 2.8 Mach, has been in service with the Navy and was inducted into the Army in 2007.
Surprisingly, the first user test firing took place almost two years after its induction indicating that the missile was being fine-tuned by the joint Indo-Russian scientific team that is working on the project.
The surface-to-surface missile system has been inducted as a separate artillery unit consisting of four launchers. The Army is looking to acquire close to 80 launchers over the next few years to give a boost to its artillery units. The BrahMos was originally designed as an anti ship missile but DRDO is also working on a smaller air launched version, to be fitted on the IAF’s SU 30 MKI.
While the missile has been developed under a joint venture between India and Russia with both sides funding the research programme, Moscow is yet to place any orders for the missile. India, on the other hand, is also planning to install the missile on its submarines.
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It's true that the missile was tested with modified configuration. Making missiles is not an easy work. Take into account the funding they get in the development and the talented graduates who are eager to serve countries like US , working there to just enjoy their life. They just want to work under some foreigners rather than leading others. By the time Nuclear bomb was dropped on Japan, we were fighting for our independence. Of course we have a long way to go but we started it late and we are picking up
The columnist seems to have missed the point that the test was intended to validate a new avionics package. Mistakes happen, and they're necessary to fine-tune systems. I'm glad that the test failed, now people will look into why it failed, and make improvements in the system. Better to have a failiure during trials and correct them, than have failiures on the battlefield. As for being millions of miles behind Pakistan in missile technology, as one commentator has written, we don't import our missiles and spray paint our name on it like you did with Babur and Shaheen, and neither do we reverse engineer retrieved missiles, like you did with Ra'ad, which is a copy of the Tomahawk. Our technology is indigenous.
Why do we not wait till we perfect a system and make it acceptable to the users before we start blowing our trumpet. The DRDO needs to talk less and work more.
Before relaeasing such sensitive defence news, the columnist should do some home work. This missile was tried with newer version of avaionics which was different from existing version which has already been succesfully test fired more than dozen of times.STOP SENSATIONALISING EVERYTHING. Indian media needs to have much mature approach, alteast towards issues like this in which national pride is concerned.
Indian media have surrendered their judgement ..... in exchange for what, I dont know. We all saw during 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, how Barkha Dutt was shooting her mouth off about movement of Indian security forces. A food critic of Times Of India - Sakina Begum - was trapped in the Taj hotel and spoke to Barkha Dutt ofer cell phone and on live TV, madame Barkha revealed Sakina's position. The next news about Sakina was that she had been killed by the na-paki terrorists. What can you expect from such type of media ? I am not surprised by this article or the fact that the author never bothered to check facts regarding the new avionics. Everyone seems to have ulterior motives these days, I wonder what Manu Pubby's motives are ??
It would be better to shift the target to the path of the missile.The results of the rockets fired into space is known only to ISRO. But the results of missile test will never be a secret.They cannot hide behind clouds.
So what ? Stupid media shud stop reporting such minor incidents as we become a laughing stockin front of the world. In our next attempt, we will try to overcome and succeed. Such media personnel lack common-sense
IT'S NOT THE 1ST TIME WHEN INDIANS HAVE FAILED TO PROVE WHAT THEY ALWAYS CLAIM TO BE . . . YOU IMAGINE THE STUPIDITY OF THIS NATION THAT THEY INDUCTED THIS MISSILE IN THEIR ARMY 2 YEARS AGO n YESTERDAY THEY CONDUCTED " VERY 1ST USER TRIAL " IZN'T IT FUNNY ? YES YOU PEOPLE ARE LAUGHING STOCK n YOU SHOULD LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES THAT YOU ARE STILL THOUSANDS OF MILES BEHIND PAKISTAN IN MISSILE TECH. YOU SHOULD GROW UP n ACCEPT THE FACT BRAVELY. . . FURTHERMORE, OUR NECLEAR WEAPONS ARE MUCH MORE RELIABLE n BETTER THAN YOURS . . I AM NOT SAYIN THAT . . . YOU JUST READ WHAT INTERNATIONAL THINK TANKS ARE SAYING. . . ENOUGH FOR THE DAY, I GUESS HAHAHAHAH
if u paki will wash out the colour of ur missile u will find chinese and korean missiles. u have done nothing by now and even dont have pride too. go to any defense blog u will find the truth about ur borrowed missile project and what a country living on credits
This is pathetic. Russian and Indian weapons are almost always behind schedule, have cost overruns, and then end up bing defective!India has to stop trying to force its low quality "indigenous" weapons on the military, or it is going to pay the price when its forces are slaughtered in the next war.Failed projects (in my opinion)LCA- MRCA tender to replace mig 21s, not the LCAARJUN tank- this tank is 70% foriegn and still doesnt meet army requirement safter 30 years of developmentTRISHUL- doesnt work, replaced by barak missiles-AKASH- took so long to become operational, the python missile was bought from israel to fill in-INSAS carbine: defective, and now india has to buy 500k new carbines to fill inNEED I GO ON?
Another "feather in the cap" for DRDO....35 years on unusable Arjun tank development, 30 years for Akash/Trishul duds, 15 years on non-functional kaveri engine, and now this!It is hilarious to hear Antony say that "the test wasnt directed at any country". It wouldnt have mattered because the missile would have missed anyway...
Half baked reports seem to have become a norm for some columnists. This report seems to give selective truth. The Truth behind the Brahmos: Well, for starters, the Brahmos has undergone almost 2 dozen successful tests, so its reliability is not as much in question as this columnist may try to paint. Secondly, another point that this columnist has conveniently ignored is that this particular test was conducted using a tweaked version of the Brahmos missile; quite possibly even with a different warhead configuration then normal (i.e. Nuclear).; a far cry from a "fine-tuned" Brahmos as this reporter has written. When there is a change in missile configuration, there are several parameters which have to be re-checked, and failure is sometime unavoidable and is even required to fix the certain aspects. All in all, Indian media needs to get its act together. Such reports show that the media itself is clueless, and result in misinforming the Indian people.