Supersonic BrahMos Block-II missile regiment inducted
The deployment of the precision strike weapon BrahMos tactical missiles in Arunachal Pradesh yesterday, as part of the Army's pro-active conventional war strategy that provisions for multiple armoured thrusts by self-contained battle groups across the border, has already been approved by the government to counter China's huge military infrastructure build-up along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
A similar induction of the new BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles has also been approved for the western sector - on the Pakistan side.
The new regiment consists of the Block-II version of the missiles developed to hit a specific small target with a low radar cross-section in a cluttered environment.
Its advanced version, Block-III, yet to be inducted, has steep dive capability to take out targets hidden even behind a mountain range. The BrahMos Block-I regiment was first inducted by the Army in 2007.
Sources said the versatile BrahMos system, which is now available in multiple versions and flies at the speed of Mach 2.8, was delivered ahead of schedule, is the only system which can reach targets up to nearly 300 km (290 to be precise), and has devastating power with nine times more kinetic energy than sub-sonic cruise missiles.
The Army, Navy and IAF plan to induct all the three versions of the multi-role BrahMos over the next couple of years with orders worth Rs 9,484 crore, Rs 3,568 crore and Rs 1,295 crore respectively already placed.
While the Agni series of nuclear-capable missiles act as a strategic deterrent, the BrahMos and the under-development 150-km range Prahaar missiles are part of the Army's all-weather battlefield support systems for precision-based concentrated assaults during conventional war.
Both BrahMos and Prahaar missiles can carry conventional warheads between 200-250 kg. (UNI -Posted on / )
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