India's flagship missile can now cruise at 3 times the speed of sound

• The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test fired the new version of the BrahMos missile increasing its range to 500 km.
  
• India has become the first country in the world to successfully integrate long range missile into its fighter jets.
  
• This development has come after India became a permanent member of the multinational Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
  
• This test also successfully conducted first vertical deep dive version of BrahMos.
  

The world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos has turned deadlier with the new technological advancements made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The missile which was earlier capable of striking upto 300 km range, will now be able to strike as far as 500 km after the latest tests, according to CEO of Brahmos Aerospace, Sudhir Kumar Mishra.

This development came after India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) last year.

“India has successfully test fired a vertical deep dive version of BrahMos, world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, that can now change the dynamics of conventional warfare. The upgraded version of the missile with enhanced range of upto 500 km is also ready,” Mishra told in an interview to the Doordarshan news.

The new test has made India the only country in the world to have successfully integrated long-range missiles into fighter jets. DRDO has integrated and tested the BrahMos with Indian Air Forces (IAF) mainstay fighter jet Sukhoi 30.
BrahMos travels at 2.8 Mach, which is almost three times the speed of sound. It is also the heaviest weapon to be deployed onboard Sukhoi 30.

“We can take on any ship at sea up to 300 to 400 km far away and after sometime, maybe longer, we can take on land targets up to hundreds of km and with the test that we have conducted some time back, ranges up to thousands of km,” Mishra said.

Mishra added that the BrahMos has become the mainstay weapon of choice for the Army, Air Force and Navy, and the steep 90-degree version has come out as an ultimate aircraft hitter.

The joint venture which started with ₹1,300 crore, has now become a ₹48,000 crore entity, as per reports.