India, on 30 September, test-fired an extended-range BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Odisha. The longer range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile can hit targets 400 km away. The range has been increased from the existing 290 km.
The missile, which has land, air and naval variants, is an Indo-Russian joint venture. The missile featuring an indigenous booster and air-frame section along with many other ‘Made in India’ sub-systems was successfully flight tested for designated range .
The missile cruised at a top speed of Mach 2.8 (nearly three times the speed of sound). The configuration of the existing missile – the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile – has been tweaked to enhance its range.
Increasing the missile’s range became possible after India’s induction into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016.
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The existing BrahMos missile is deployed in the eastern Ladakh theatre where India and China are locked in a border row.
The successful launch has paved the way for the serial production of the indigenous booster and other indigenous components of the powerful weapon system, the defence ministry said in a statement.
India is also working on a hypersonic missile, BrahMos-II (K), capable of taking out hardened targets such as underground bunkers and weapon storage facilities at seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) or 8,575 kmph.
Various Configurations
While the land-attack BrahMos has enabled Indian Army to undertake divergent land warfare operations in difficult, treacherous terrains and carry out deep surgical strikes, the missile, deployed on Indian Navy’s frontline maritime platforms in both anti-ship and land-attack configurations, has enormously sharpened the Navy’s anti-surface warfare and coastal defence warfare capability.
In addition to the mobile ground-launched and sea-based weapons, it is the fielding of the highly advanced BrahMos air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) deployed on the Indian Air Force’s Su-30MKI air combat platform which has profoundly strengthened India’s deterrence posture and expanded the country’s strategic outreach.
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On January 20, 2020 the IAF commissioned the “TigerSharks” Squadron, deploying the deadly combination of Su-30MKI armed with BrahMos. Being the heaviest and deadliest “stand-off” precision strike weapon to arm the long range Sukhoi-30MKI, BrahMos-A has ensured that India punches a deadly blow to potential enemy positions on the ground and sea from far off ranges.
Naval BrahMos
BrahMos was successfully test fired, on 18 October, today from Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea with pin-point accuracy after performing high-level and extremely complex manoeuvres.
BrahMos as ‘prime strike weapon’ will ensure the warship’s invincibility by engaging naval surface targets at long ranges, thus making the destroyer another lethal platform of Indian Navy. The highly versatile BrahMos has been jointly designed, developed and produced by India and Russia.
