Mumbai, May 21: The Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of army successfully test-fired the BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile from test range along the Odisha coast on Monday.  BrahMos missile is considered to be the heaviest weapon and one among the world's fastest missiles to be deployed on India’s Su-30 fighter aircraft. It was co-developed by India and Russia and will be breaching the mach 7 barrier to become a 'hypersonic' system in the next decade. Supersonic travel is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also congratulated and tweeted about the successful test fire carried out today.

The integration work has already started, while the missile is expected to fulfil the critical needs of the Indian Air Force in the wake of evolving security dynamics in the region. BrahMos is a joint venture between Army (DRDO) and  NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia. NPO Novator is a Russian company that designs long-range anti-aircraft missiles. While the name 'BrahMos' is formed from the names of two rivers- the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

Sudhir Mishra, the chief executive and managing director of the joint venture company BrahMos Aerospace had told PTI in April, "The missile, which currently travels at mach 2.8 or 2.8 times the speed of sound, would touch mach 3.5 soon and mach 5 in three years. For that, the current engine will have to be 'tinkered' to achieve mach 5 and will have to be replaced to achieve hypersonic speed."

The range of the BrahMos missile, an Indo-Russia joint venture, can be extended up to 400km as certain technical restrictions were lifted after India became a full member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) last year. Earlier in March, the supersonic cruise missile was test fired from Pokharan test range in Rajasthan.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2018 02:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).