India on Sunday successfully test-fired the land version of the 'BrahMos' supersonic cruise missile and said it was ready for induction in the army. This was the third test-firing of the missile, developed under an Indo-Russian joint venture, since January. "Today land attack version of BrahMos Block-II was tested from a mobile autonomous launcher at Pokhran test range by the Indian Army. The missile took off successfully and hit the desired target at bull's eye, meeting all mission parameters," the army's military's research wing said in a statement quoted by DPA. Several senior officials of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) witnessed the test at Pokhran, in western Rajasthan state, near the border with Pakistan, IANS news agency reported. The BrahMos, named after the Bramhaputra and Moskva rivers, has a range of 290 kilometres and can carry conventional warheads weighing up to 300 kilograms. It is capable of traveling at Mach 2.8, or nearly three times the speed of sound. India's army and navy have begun introducing earlier Block-I versions of the missile. BrahMos is a Indo-Russian joint venture company set up in 1998.
