BRAHMOS is a Supersonic Cruise Missile that can be launched from submarine, ship, aircraft and land based Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL). The missile is launched from a Transport-Launch Canister (TLC), which also acts as storage and transportation container.Primarily BRAHMOS is an anti-ship missile. It has the capability to engage land based targets also. The missile can be launched either in vertical or inclined position and will cover 360 degrees. The BRAHMOS missile has identical configuration for land, sea and sub sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for stability during launch. It is a joint venture between India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited was established in India as a Joint Venture through an Inter-Governmental Agreement between India and Russia signed in February 1998.
Some distinguishing features:
High Supersonic Velocity
Long flight range
Varieties of flight trajectories
"Fire & Forget" principle
Universal for multiple platforms
Low Radar Signature
Simplicity of technical operations
High lethal power
Higher effectiveness
BrahMos claims to have the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 290 km.
The ship-launched and land-based missiles can carry a 200 kg warhead, whereas the aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A) can carry a 300 kg warhead. It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.The high speed of the BrahMos likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise-missiles such as the Tomahawk. Being twice as heavy and almost four times faster than the Tomahawk, the BrahMos has almost 32 times the initial kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missile (although it pays for this by having only 3/5 the payload and a fraction of the range despite weighing twice as much, suggesting a different tactical paradigm to achieve the objective).
Although BrahMos is primarily an anti-ship missile, it can also engage land based targets. It can be launched either in a vertical or inclined position and is capable of covering targets over a 360 degree horizon. The BrahMos missile has an identical configuration for land, sea, and sub-sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for added stability during launch. The BrahMos is currently being configured for aerial deployment with the Su-30MKI as its carrier
The first flight-test of the BRAHMOS missile was conducted on 12 June 2001 at the Interim Test Range, in Orissa state of India.
The missile was launched in vertical mode, where the missile was launched upward from the canister and directed towards the target point. This launch was the first in a series of flight-tests planned to demonstrate the capabilities of the system to the potential customers. The second flight test (D02) of the BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile was conducted successfully, from Interim Test Range in Orissa, on 28 April 2002. The missile was flown in a high-low-low trajectory to test the missile's sea skimming capabilities. In this flight, the missile was launched in an inclined configuration, as if it is onboard a ship.The mission objective was to establish the missile parameters and the performance of all the subsystems, in the configuration. The post flight analysis proved that all the set mission objectives had been achieved.
The BRAHMOS (D03) missile was successfully flight tested on 12 February 2003 from one of the warships off the eastern coast.
The latest version of Brahmos successfully tested!
BrahMos II is a hypersonic cruise missile that has been lab tested with a speed of 5.26 Mach making it the fastest cruise missile in the world. 
BrahMos II is expected to be ready by 2013-14After failing to hit its target in the previous test, a new version of the 290 km-range supersonic BrahMos cruise missile was today successfully test launched at a firing range in Pokhran in Rajasthan desert."The Block II BrahMos missile was successfully launched at 1030 hours this morning," officials of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who have developed the weapon system in collaboration with Russian scientists, told PTI.The missile "took two-and-a half-minutes to strike its target in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan," they said.The test launch was witnessed by Deputy Army Chief (Planning and Systems) Lt Gen M S Dadwal among others. The latest land attack version of the missile has been developed for the Army and the weapon was fired in a vertical-launch configuration, the officials said.
The earlier test of the Indo-Russian joint venture missile was carried out on January 20 when after a successful take off, it deviated from its course mid-way and failed to hit the target.The officials said that a "defect" in the software of the homing device of the missile had been rectified leading to its successful test today.The officials said the "unique" technology in the Block II BrahMos version made the missile an "unparalleled" one giving the armed forces the ability to hit targets in building clusters."The new seeker system is unique and it will help us to hit the targets, which may be insignificant in terms of size, in a cluster of large buildings. We are the only nation having this advanced technology," they claimed.Some more launches of the Block II BrahMos system will be carried out since the Army has made it clear that it will induct the supersonic missile's new version only after it proves its capabilities in a series of tests to be conducted in the near future.The officials said that the Army will start receiving deliveries of the 240 missiles ordered by it in two years from now as per the original schedule.The Army has already armed one regiment with the Block I version of the missile. BrahMos, which is an Indo-Russian joint venture company, has its headquarters in Delhi