An advanced block II version of the Brahmos surface-to-surface missile was once again test-fired at the Pokharan ranges on Wednesday. But,it was not immediately clear if it met all the mission requirements. The test,which comes after the same version of the missile failed to hit its target during the first test fire in January,was carried out jointly by the DRDO and the Army. While no official word has come in yet,DRDO sources who were present at the test site said that the missile met the test requirements. But,the Army,which has refused to induct the missile unless it passes all tests,said that evaluation of the test-fire was still going on and it was too early to say whether it was a complete success. Evaluations of the test and whether it met the set General Staff Qualitative Requirements are still on. We are checking whether it met all parameters, a senior Army officer said. Sources indicated that the missile may not have managed to hit the bulls eye, but fell within the circular error probability (CEP) the acceptable margin of error of the system during the test. The block II version of the missile,which uses a new software,is meant to be a precision strike system that can target a specific building in a target rich environment. This means that the missile should be capable of homing in to a particular building within a group of similar structures. The earlier test,carried out on January 20,was deemed a failure after the missile that has a range of over 280 km completely missed its target and fell more than two kilometres away. Post test evaluations revealed that the software used in the missile was not fast enough to process all information after the missile had been fired from the launcher. Scientists said the supersonic speed of the missile did not give its software enough time to kick in and home in to the target. However,Indian and Russian scientists working on the missile had come up with a solution,Brahmos chief S Pillai told The Indian Express.
