Anti-ship BrahMos variant to be tested

In a critical test, an anti-ship version of the BrahMos, the Russian-Indian supersonic cruise missile, will be launched from a submarine platform by year-end, the Russian partner company in the project said on Friday. ‘We need a test-launch by the end of the year,’ Alexander Dergachev, Deputy General Director of the Russian partner company NPO Mashninostroyenie, said. ‘A decision will be made on whether the weapon can be accepted for service with the Indian Navy, dependent on the outcome,’ he was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying. The test will be a single demonstration firing from a submerged raft, Dergachev said. BrahMos, set up in 1998, produces three variants of the BrahMos missile.