New Delhi: In two back-to-back test firings, the Indian Air Force (IAF) today successfully validated the Indo-Russian BrahMos land-attack cruise missiles for its combat readiness.

The IAF conducted the tests of the surface-to-surface cruise missile in combat mode at the Trek Island in Car Nicobar Islands region off India’s eastern coast.

The successful launch comes a day after another successful test of the weapon in practice configuration by the IAF carried out at the same location.

The twin successful launches were conducted by the IAF’s user unit in operational configuration to assess mission readiness and swift deployment of the tactical missile over long distance.

In the first test conducted yesterday, the BrahMos land-attack weapon flawlessly followed the desired flight trajectory and flew for its nearly full range of 300 km before successfully hitting the pre-set target with bull’s eye accuracy, two top defence officials, who witnessed the launch, confirmed.

The second test was successfully carried out when the missile in combat mode once again struck at the designated land target with perfect precision, the officials said.

The two consecutive tests were conducted by the IAF to confirm operational preparedness and combat readiness of BrahMos missile to validate the missile’s precision hit capability over long distance, the officials said.

The IAF, which is inching closer to deploy the powerful BrahMos air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) on its Su-30MKI strike fighter platform, has already operationalised the mobile, land-based BrahMos squadron since 2014.

Jointly developed by India and Russia, the multi-role multi-platform BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has also been operationalised in the Indian Army and Indian Navy previously.