As the flagship defence partnership programme between India and Russia, BRAHMOS has charted a highly successful trajectory in a very short span of time.
The world’s best supersonic cruise missile has proved its versatility as a multi-platform, multi-mission, multi-target weapon capable of knocking down the adversary in the modern-day complex battlefields.
A state-of-the-art high technology weapon flying at a top speed of Mach 2.8 for a distance of 290 kms, BRAHMOS with its high manoeuvrability, quick reaction time and stealth characteristics has rendered a distinct tactical edge to the Indian Armed Forces.
The missile operates on ‘fire and forget’ concept, whereby it adopts varieties of flight paths on its way to the target.
High supersonic speed throughout the flight, low flight range with variety of flight trajectories and moreover, a low radar signature enables the missile to straightaway bang on the target with pinpoint accuracy without being detected by the enemy’s radar systems.
The land-attack and anti-ship variants of the tactical missile have been deployed with the Indian Army and Navy since 2007 and 2005 respectively.
The Indian Air Force has received one squadron of land-attack BRAHMOS even as the missile’s air-to-surface version is getting ready for flight test from the frontline Sukhoi-30 strike fighter in the coming months.
“Once the airborne BRAHMOS is tested successfully, the missile programme is set to create a historic milestone at the global stage” says Sudhir Kumar Mishra, CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace.
Besides achieving a rare technological feat in the aerospace domain, the missile is going to render the IAF an unmatched combat potential to deliver a deadly-blow to enemy formations from stand-off ranges without getting closer to them.
The deployment of BRAHMOS on the long-range Sukhoi-30 fighter promises to be an ultimate force multiplier for India. It will also complete the tactical cruise missile triad by being launched from land, sea and air – an exclusive capability not achieved by anyone in the world.
The weapon will also play a critical role in modern day network-centric warfare operations.
While charting all these milestones in a very short time span since its inception in 1998, the BrahMos JV programme has also set out its future roadmap which includes the design and development of more advanced variants of the existing cruise missile system.
One of them is a miniature BRAHMOS, lighter and smaller but smarter than its present version. To be called BRAHMOS-NG, it will be developed for deployment on new-generation military platforms, including warships, submarines and fighter aircraft.
The next technological breakthrough would be the development of a hypersonic BRAHMOS, to be called BRAHMOS-II (K) flying at an ultra-high speed of Mach 5-7.
As the world leader in cruise missile family, BRAHMOS continues its successful journey to the future.