Amid escalating military conflict with Pakistan, the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos production unit is set to be inaugurated at the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor in Lucknow on Sunday.

Built at a cost of Rs 300 crore, the facility will manufacture one of the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missiles, with a range of 290 to 400 km and a top speed of Mach 2.8. The missile, a product of BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India and Russia, can be launched from land, sea, or air and uses a “fire and forget” system.

Besides the manufacturing unit, the BrahMos Aerospace Integration and Testing Facility will also be launched. This facility will play a key role in testing and assembling missiles, according to an official statement.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who will join virtually from Delhi, will inaugurate the facilities.

During the event, the Titanium and Super Alloys Materials Plant (Strategic Materials Technology Complex) will also be opened, producing high-quality materials for the aerospace and defence sectors.

At the complex, the Defence Testing Infrastructure System (DTIS) is also going to be developed, and it’s foundation stone will be laid during the event. DTIS will help test and certify defence products.

Completed in three and a half years, the BrahMos production unit in Lucknow stands on 80 hectares of land provided free of cost by the Uttar Pradesh government.

The UP Defence Industrial Corridor, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018, has six nodes — Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot — where major investments are being made to boost defence manufacturing, according to the statement.

Uttar Pradesh is the second state after Tamil Nadu to establish a Defence Industrial Corridor, it added.

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