For the second straight day, the South Western Command of the Indian Army carried out a successful test of the BrahMos Block III Land Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) system, with the test missile exploding less than one meter from its target.

The test at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal was carried out by the command's 1 Corps. A similarly successful test of the BrahMos LACM was carried out on May 2.

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The army said the successive launches confirm BrahMos' supersonic precision strike capability and its lethal and unique "top-attack" mode, an attack profile not achieved by any other weapon system comparable to BrahMos. This is the fifth consecutive test in which the Block III version destroyed a land-based target in the top-attack mode.

These successful tests of BrahMos Block III were carried out in full operational land-to-land configurations from Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL) at its full-range of 290 kilometers.

BrahMos Block III is a precision land-attack, supersonic cruise missile fitted with a new guidance system and intended to destroy fortified and hardened targets and bunkers. The new missile features a deep penetration capability, as well as extended range.

BrahMos Block III was first test fired from a mobile launcher by the Indian Army on Nov. 18, 2013.

A longer range version of BrahMos III -- the BrahMos Extended Range (BrahMos ER) -- was tested in March and brings more targets inside Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control with China within the destructive range of the world's fastest cruise missile.

The maiden flight of BrahMos ER from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur in Odisha along the Bay of Bengal saw the land attack version of the missile fired at "an electronic target." BrahMos ER has a range of 450 km compared to the 290 km range of the original anti-ship missile (AShM) version.

The launch from a mobile autonomous launcher (MAL) deployed in full configuration," met all the test parameters," said BrahMos Aerospace Ltd, maker of BrahMos. BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia.