Lucknow, May 11 -- The state capital will enter the league of cities producing cruise missiles when the BrahMos production unit complex is inaugurated here on Sunday. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the BrahMos missile complex with defence minister Rajnath Singh virtually joining the event from New Delhi. Built at a cost of Rs 300 crore, the BrahMos production unit in Lucknow stands on 80 hectares of land provided free of cost by the Yogi Adityanath government. Completed in three-and-a-half years, the facility will manufacture the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile-a joint India-Russia project with a range of 290 to 400 km and a top speed of Mach 2.8. The BrahMos can be launched from land, sea, or air and uses a 'fire and forget' system, making it highly precise and difficult to intercept. The project is part of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UP Investors Summit in Lucknow on February 21, 2018, the corridor spans six strategic nodes-Kanpur, Jhansi, Lucknow, Aligarh, Agra, and Chitrakoot-under the supervision of the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA). The six nodes in Uttar Pradesh's corridor are located near major expressways like the Purvanchal Expressway and the Ganga Expressway. This ensures smooth transport and logistics. The defence minister and the chief minister will also inaugurate the Titanium and Super Alloys Materials Plant (strategic materials technology complex) on the occasion. This plant will produce high-quality materials for aerospace and defence sectors, which will be used in missions like Chandrayaan and in fighter jets. The BrahMos Aerospace Integration and Testing Facility will also be launched. It will play a key role in testing and assembling missiles. The foundation stone for a Defence Testing Infrastructure System (DTIS) will also be laid at the Lucknow node. This system will help in testing and certifying defence products. DRDO secretary Sameer V. Kamat will deliver the welcome speech, while Sachin Agarwal, chairman of PTC Industries, will talk about the company's contribution. Uttar Pradesh is the second state after Tamil Nadu to establish a Defence Industrial Corridor, launched in 2019. Both corridors are key to the 'Make in India' and 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiatives, aimed at reducing defence imports, boosting indigenous production, generating employment, and encouraging participation from private firms, MSMEs and startups....