NEW DELHI, 10 November 2003 — India yesterday successfully tested a supersonic cruise anti-ship missile, it is jointly developing with Russia, from a launch site in the eastern state of Orissa, defense officials said.
The Brahmos missile has a range of 300 kilometers (186 miles) and can carry a 200-kilogram (440-pound) conventional warhead. It was first test fired in June 2001.
The test took place yesterday morning at the Interim-Test-Range at Chandipur, 180 kilometers (111 miles) from Orissa’s state capital Bhubaneswar.
“After achieving precision guidance capability in the surface-to-surface version from a fixed launcher in its fourth trial on Oct. 29, the missile was tested to check its other parameters today,” a defense source said.
The three-ton, eight-meter (26-foot) long missile can be launched from a variety of platforms including ships and aircraft.
The missile was developed by a joint venture company formed in 1998 between the DRDO and Russia’s State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia.
Israeli Equipment Helping Check Infiltration in Kashmir
Troops manning the de facto border with Pakistan in troubled Kashmir yesterday claimed they were successfully preventing infiltration of rebels into Kashmir thanks to new thermal imaging cameras from Israel.
“The Israeli hand-held thermal imagers have proved effective in tracking down groups of infiltrators on the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch and Rajouri districts,” a senior army officer told AFP.
Army officials said the imagers, with a range of up to four kilometers (2.5 miles), had helped to gun down as many as 70 militants on the LOC in the Poonch and Rajouri districts, west of Kashmir’s winter capital Jammu, in the past six months.
“Patrol parties of the security forces have eliminated groups of infiltrators after watching their movement on the thermal imagers,” said Dilip Trivedi, inspector general of the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF).
A police officer said that the imagers had also resulted in the killing of 15 rebels trying to cross into India in Kashmir’s Mendhar area, 225 kilometers (140 miles) west of Jammu.
