The original video has been posted by the Southern Command of the Indian Army

On November 24, India successfully test-fired a land-attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Meanwhile, some social media users are claiming that India has failed to launch a surface-to-surface missile.

A video of a missile launch is being shared with the caption, “Once again India has been failed in testing the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile.” The 12-second video shows a missile taking off and then descending some distance away amid a trail of smoke.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the caption along with the video is false. The video is of the November 24 launch of BrahMos missile.

Many Twitter users have made similar claims. The archived version can be seen here.

AFWA Probe

With the help of keyword search, we found that the official Twitter handle of Indian Army, Southern Command, Pune, had posted the same video in a horizontal format on November 24.

The video was shared with the caption, “Indian Army successfully launched its BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on 24 Nov 2020 in a top-attack configuration, hitting a target in the Bay of Bengal with pinpoint accuracy.”

News agency ANI had shared the same video on Twitter.

Several media reports were published about the launch, some of which can be seen here and here. The Press Information Bureau has also refuted the viral claim, calling it fake.

We found that the same Twitter user had earlier shared a fake claim of China shooting down an Indian Sukhoi jet, which was refuted by PIB.

Thus, it is clear that the recent launch video of BrahMos is being shared as India’s failure to launch a supersonic cruise missile.

IDN View

The problem for such a reaction is the poor quality of videos being shot by DRDO. Either it is done by internal DRDO sources or given to unprofessional/small time agencies to save costs. The doubt probably arose as the protection shroud which envelops to safeguard the warhead from extreme atmospheric regimes is seen being ejected with extreme force by retro rockets immediately after the missile reaches a certain altitude. Naïve and idiotic enemies of India latch on to this and spread fake news. Unlike Pakistan and China, India never hides its test failures since all the defence agencies work under a democratic setup which is ultimately answerable to the nation. A point in question, has the reader ever read a Pakistani report of its missile test failure ever in the media? Years ago, the Ghauri missiles multiple failures (Nodong-1 procured clandestinely from North Korea) were actually reported by Japanese media after a video was leaked by a North Korean "scientist" working at Tilla Test Range near Malute in Pakistan.

DRDO should ensure that professional companies are employed to cover such critical and high profile coverage, if not, this would be the result and DRDO will have to unnecessarily face such ignominies.