Army inducts BrahMos Block-II regiment

New Delhi: The Indian Army inducted a new regiment of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on Wednesday. The regiment handed over on Wednesday is a Block-II version of the missile, developed to hit a specific target with a low radar cross-section in a cluttered environment.

The BrahMos is a precision strike weapon with a 290-km strike range, which cruises at supersonic speeds in the range of 2.8 Mach.

The next version being readied for induction will be the Block-III version, with a "steep dive capability", which will take out targets hidden behind a mountain range, for instance.

To match China's increasingly aggressive stance in the region the government has approved the raising of another regiment of BrahMos missiles by the army, which will be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh.

India and China share a common border along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh borders.

While the Indian armed forces deploy the Agni series of nuclear-capable missiles as a strategic deterrent, BrahMos, and the under-development 150 km range, Prahaar, missiles have been developed as highly-mobile, all-weather battlefield support missile systems for accurate and concentrated assaults at enemy targets in the conventional warfare mode.