India successfully test-fires N-capable BrahMos

India today successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable BrahMos missile with a range of 290 km at Pokhran in Rajasthan's desert in a planned launch for the army.

The test comes in the midst of heightened tension between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai terror attacks. Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters in New Delhi that the test was pre-planned and not directed against any country.

The missile, capable of touching a speed of 2.8 times that of sound, was launched during the trial in its vertical mode, DRDO officials told PTI.  

Currently, the army has one regiment armed with the BrahMos missile which is different from the version that was test-fired today.

The present round of trials was earlier scheduled for January 17 but was postponed till today. However, the DRDO sources did not specify any reasons for the delay.

BrahMos is a missile that India is developing in collaboration with Russia and is named after river Brahmputra and Moscow.

During the visit of Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to India late last year, an agreement was reached between the two countries for development of a hyper-sonic BrahMos missile.