Sources in the defence and security establishment said the IAF currently has 40 SU-30 MKI with BrahMos, the only supersonic cruise missile in the world. Sources in the defence and security establishment also said that while the range of the missile was 290 km earlier, it has been extended to over 500 km.

The land-launched BrahMos has a range of about 400 kilometres and work is also to increase its range to 800 and 1,500-km.

Sources also said the missile, with its exceptional accuracy, has been a true wonder for the IAF.

“In every single trial, the missile has hit the designated target on the ground with a difference of maximum 10 metres. When the IAF fired at a ship, the missile hit the ship right in the centre,” a source said.

The IAF had commissioned the 222 ‘Tiger Sharks’ squadron of Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets equipped with the BrahMos in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, in August 2020. It was the first time the Fourth Generation air dominance fighters were based out of the Southern Air Command. Given the Su-30s’ maritime strike capability, the IAF had made this move with an eye on increasing Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region.

The decision to deploy the Su-30 MKIs at Thanjavur was also taken due to its strategic location. The Tiger Sharks squadron has 18 fighters, and about six of which are equipped with BrahMos.

In total, the IAF has 40 Sukhois equipped with Brahmos and these are spread on the country’s western border with Pakistan and its eastern boundary with China.

Difficult to intercept by SAMs

Unlike the land-launched, the air version of BrahMos gives military planners more options to hit deeper targets which would otherwise be out of range. This is because the Sukhois have a range of 1,500 kilometres and hence can hit long distance targets with the cruise missile.

The IAF had tested the extended range of the missile in May.

The Navy also has the BrahMos missiles integrated with a certain class of its warships.

Sources said there were certain software changes that had to be made for extending the missile’s range and this was done with the help of Russians.

BrahMos missiles are manufactured in India under a joint venture that was formed in 1998 between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya.

The name BrahMos is a portmanteau of the names of two rivers — India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva.

The missile has a maximum speed of 2.8 Mach (around 3,450 kmph or 2,148 mph), and is difficult to intercept by surface-to-air missiles currently deployed from warships across the world. It also has an immense ability to evade radars.

The missile’s cruising altitude can be up to 15 km, and the lowest it can fly is 10 metres above the surface and is capable of carrying a conventional warhead (non-nuclear) weighing 200-300 kg.

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On 10 March, Pakistan’s Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) alleged in a press conference that Pakistan’s Air Defence Operations Centre had on the evening of 9 March picked up a high-speed flying object that had been launched from near Sirsa (Haryana). The object initially seemed to be heading towards Mahajan Field Firing Ranges (MFFR), but after 70-80 kilometres, it suddenly turned towards Pakistan, flew at speeds up to Mach 3 and reached an altitude of 40,000 feet, travelled 124 km inside Pakistan and finally landed at Mian Channu, Khanewal district (northwest of Multan), damaging three houses. It also said that Pakistan had recovered the debris and was examining it.

On 11 March, Pakistan summoned India’s Charge d’Affaires and officially voiced “strong condemnation of this blatant violation of Pakistani airspace”, after which India admitted that on 9 March, it had accidentally fired a missile that landed in Pakistan and that it “deeply regretted” the incident. It added that the accident occurred due to a technical malfunction during a routine maintenance check and that the government had “taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of enquiry”.

Reports suggested that an inspection and protocol revision was being carried out at a secret satellite base. The missile followed the correct trajectory and also ruled out speculation about the launch being part of an actual firing test. No NOTAM issued. A NOTAM or notice to airmen is a warning issued to alert pilots of potential hazards on a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.

Missile trials do not take place in the Field Firing Ranges in the west. All trials are held on the eastern flank and from the Andaman and Nicobar Command.

India Regrets Accidental Firing

Noting that the incident was regrettable, a statement by the Ministry of Defence said on 11 March, “The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level court of enquiry”.

The statement also said that the missile had entered Pakistan from India on 9 March due to “accidental firing” caused by “a technical malfunction” in the “course of routine maintenance”.

Likely to be BrahMos

From the tracking data (particularly the speed, altitude reached) released by Pakistan’s DG ISPR and the pictures available, it seems fairly certain that the object was India’s supersonic BrahMos cruise missile. Perhaps the latter was being updated with targeting data, or its systems were being tested for full-functionality, and it got fired inadvertently. Or as some reports suggested it was a training inert version of the missile.

There was speculation that India had deliberately fired the missile to test Pakistan’s missile defence readiness. This theory does not seem plausible since it would risk the latest weapon falling into inimical hands.

Human Errors

The incident showed India’s handling of its strategic weapons and launch protocols in poor light. Given the long-running tensions between India and Pakistan, this inadvertent launch could have easily led to a rapid escalation to nuclear levels.

The timings provided by Pakistan show that the Indian missile was airborne for about seven minutes before its impact near Mian Channu and could have easily been misconstrued as an Indian pre-emptive strike on a Pakistani strategic facility – Multan is one of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons sites.

What is surprising is that the missile system has several mechanical and software safety mechanisms to prevent any kind of accidental firing. The missile has multiple geo-locations of targets fed into the system, which need to be selected or new ones added. There are also multiple steps of clearance, including the entry of certain codes before the countdown starts, after which the missile goes into auto mode.

Pak Air Defence Failed

The statement by Pakistan Air Force spokesperson Air Vice Mshl Tariq Zia on 10 March saying, “the projectile travelled 124 kilometres inside Pakistani territory in three minutes and 44 seconds” showed that the country’s air defence did not work against the missile.

While the incident had occurred on 9 March evening, Maj Gen Iftikhar held his press conference next day, more than 24 hours after the missile landed, which also went against Pakistan’s claim of having tracked it from the time of its launch.

Pakistan’s also sought details of the missile’s flight path/ trajectory, and how it ultimately turned and entered the country.

Pakistan Questions India’s Ability

Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf questioned India’s ability to handle sensitive technologies and called for an investigation into its “inadvertent” launch of a missile that landed in Pakistan. Yusuf said in a series of tweets that the Indian government did not bother to inform Pakistan about the incident.

He said that the missile had travelled close to the path of international and domestic airlines and threatened the safety of civilians. He also called out the Indian authorities for not informing Pakistan immediately that an “inadvertent launch of a cruise missile had taken place”.

He regretted that Pakistan’s repeated calls urging the world to take notice of “India’s irresponsible behaviour” had been ignored and New Delhi continued to pose a threat to regional stability.

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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.

ALSO READ : BrahMos Cruise Missile is Ready for China Front

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.

ALSO READ: DRDO can have complete missile system in 4-5 years

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.

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“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 at 1030 hours on Wednesday…It is one more major step in enhancing the indigenous content,” a defence ministry spokesperson said. The missile was tested for the second time.

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, the officials said.

Increasing the missile’s range became possible after India’s induction into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organisation and BrahMos Aerospace for the successful flight testing of the missile. “This achievement will give a big boost to India’s AtmaNirbharBharat Pledge,” the minister tweeted.

Source

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New Delhi: India in the recent past has developed several indigenous missiles, attack and defence systems to counter threats from China, Pakistan and other such countries.

India’s indigenously developed surface-to-air missile Akash is one of the most marvelling missiles in India’s attack and defence system. The missile developed by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) is capable of targeting aircraft up to 30 km away and at an altitude of 18,000 metres and neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles, air-to-surface missiles and even ballistic missiles. At the heart of the missile is the Indian Rajendra PESA radar system which is used for 3D target detection, multi-target tracking and to launch multiple guided missiles even in extremely hostile environments. Akash can fly at twice the speed of sound and can maintain the speed at all altitudes. The missile system is designed in such a way that it can be manoeuvred at all altitudes and speeds.

Another feather in the Indian defence artillery section is the indigenously developed Indian Ballistic Missile Defence System. This has been primarily developed by India to intercept and thwart a ballistic missile threat from China and Pakistan.

The Ballistic Missile Defence System is a double-tiered system—one being Prithvi Air Defence Missile, which helps India to intercept any airborne missile from as far as 5,000 km away, while the second Advance Air Defence is a lower altitude interceptor missile which can intercept an incoming missile from as low as 30 km and destroy it. India is part of the elite club that has the missile guarding system and apart from India, only the United States, Russia and Israel has such a system in place.

BrahMos is also one of the finest supersonic cruise missiles that India has. The versatility of this missile makes it capable of launching it from a submarine, ship, aircraft or from land. This missile has been developed under a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s DRDO. It is the world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile that is in operation currently. India is also working on developing BrahMos II which will further increase India’s aerial strike capacity in the coming times.

India has also been able to successfully develop a 5,500 km long range missile called Agni 5, that is capable of carrying 1,500 kg of conventional or nuclear warhead. This missile developed by the DRDO is a guided long-range missile having a Ring laser gyroscope and an inertial navigation system. It has attained single digit accuracy despite travelling at a very high speed. The missile has been designed in such a way that it can be carried by road or rail.

India has also recently inducted the indigenously developed light combat aircraft Tejas into its fleet of fighter aircraft. Tejas is a 4th generation light weight combat aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The aircraft is capable of firing air-to-air missiles both within the visual range and even beyond the visual range. It also has the capability to fire air-to-ground guided missiles and bombs.

Apart from these, the Indian army has also developed indigenous tanks, such as the Arjun Mark II tank which is one of the most outstanding and advanced tanks available with India. The DRDO has also developed a multiple rocket launcher for the Indian army called Pinaka having a range of 40 to 65 km.

This rocket launcher can fire 12 rockets in just 44 seconds destroying a target of over 3.2 sq km.

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