The BrahMos (unarmed) supersonic missile was accidentally fired in early March from a secret military base in northern India.
Indian Air Force fired three of its officers on Tuesday for the accidental firing in March of a cruise missile in Pakistan, India’s rival and equipped as such with nuclear weaponsafter months of investigation from New Delhi.
He had landed about 125 kilometers inside Pakistani territory, causing no physical or material damage. In a statement, the Air Force said an investigation into the incident found three officers guilty of breaches of standard operating procedures.
“These three officers are known to be most responsible for the incident. The central government immediately stopped their duties,” he added.
The tension between the two countries
Pakistan said a “supersonic flying object” that traveled 40,000 feet from India violated its airspace and hit an uninhabited civilian area on March 9. New Delhi immediately acknowledged the mistake, which Islamabad said had endangered civilian aircraft.
India called the incident “deeply regrettable” and promised an investigation at the highest level. Pakistan has demanded a joint investigation into the matter and has questioned the reliability of New Delhi’s nuclear and missile safety protocols.
But, remarkably, the two neighbors put the incident into perspective, even though history is marked by deep mistrust and mutual hostility. Relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, remain strained.
But the BrahMos is considered one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world. It can be fired from land, sea and air. This cruise missile, which flies at three times the speed of sound and has a range of 300 to 700 kilometers, is being jointly developed by India and Russia. His name is an abbreviation of the first letters of the names of the Indian river Brahmaputra and the Russian river Moscow.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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