A file photo of the naval BrahMos supersonic cruise missile being test fired from INS Chennai

The supersonic cruise missile, according to the report, was test-fired from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory as part of the trials being conducted by the Indian Navy

Continuing with its recent tests of BrahMos, India on Tuesday test-fired an anti-ship version of the supersonic cruise missile, news agency ANI reported quoting sources. The missile, reported ANI, was test-fired from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory as part of the trials being conducted by the Indian Navy.

“During the test held around 0925 hours, the DRDO-developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile with a strike range of 300 km was launched from the Indian Navy’s INS Ranvijay and it successfully hit its target ship near the Car Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal,” it further quoted sources as saying.

This latest test comes as a part of a series of tests carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in the last two months. On November 24, a land-attack version of BrahMos was test-fired, also from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory. The missile had “successfully” hit its target, located on another island, in a test that was carried out by the Indian Army.

The recent missile tests come in the backdrop of ongoing tensions with China across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, which started in May and intensified in the subsequent months. There has also been a spate of ceasefire violations by Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC) in recent days and a fighter jet of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) was reportedly spotted near the LoC on Monday.

Jointly developed by the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, BrahMos is the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile. A missile which can be launched from submarines, ship, aircraft or land, BrahMos is also the fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation. A hypersonic version, called BrahMos-II, is currently under development.

The name ‘BrahMos’ has been derived from India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva rivers.