India on Sunday successfully tested a locally made air-to-air missile in eastern Orissa state in the third such test since May 2003, defence officials said. The missile was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar.
It has a strike-range of 20 to 80 kilometres and can travel at twice the speed of sound, defence sources said.
The single-stage solid-fuel missile can carry a 15 kilogram (33 pounds) conventional warhead, they said.
The test comes three days after neighbouring Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable radar-dodging cruise missile with a range of 700 kilometres (435 miles).
The neighbours have routinely conducted missile tests since carrying out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in May 1998.
However in 2004 they launched a slow-moving peace process aimed at ending six decades of hostility and resolving their dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars.
earlier related report
Indian army to deploy supersonic BrahMos missile: CEO
Moscow (AFP) March 23 – The Indian army is to start deploying the supersonic BrahMos missile this year, the CEO of the joint Indian-Russian manufacturer said in an interview with a Russian newspaper Friday.
The missile, a version of which is already used by the Indian navy, underwent successful testing and is now ready for use, BrahMos Aerospace CEO A Sivathanu Pillai told the military affairs newspaper Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye.
"We have tested the missile… The land forces then placed an order for surface-to-surface missiles. We are now manufacturing them. In 2007, we will deliver the first batch to the army," he said.
The BrahMos has a range of 280 kilometres (175 miles) and has been developed by Indian and Russian experts since 2001.
Pillai said "a large quantity" of the BrahMos rockets would be delivered to the Indian army and for deployment on mobile launchers.
Source: Agence France-Presse
