NEW DELHI – Different kind of BrahMos missile is under development, saidMD and CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, Sudhir Mishra in Vadodara on Saturday.The missile with vertical trajectory to be used in mountains and also foranti-aircraft carrier roles will soon be ready. A lighter version ofair-launched BrahMos is at a drawing board stage, he said.
The BrahMos missile system is continuously being reinvented to be usedacross multiple platforms, different trajectory and different targets asguided by India’s ‘Missile Man’ and former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam,Mishra said during the inauguration of second manufacturing line of L&TDefence at Ranoli near Vadodara. The unit manufactures canisters andairframes for BrahMos missile, being launched from land and sea.
“Recently, we had demonstrated the vertical dive capability for BrahMosmissile. This can be used against enemies hidden in mountains particularlyin bunkers and also against aircraft carriers. While China has nuclear DF21 missiles to be used against aircraft carriers, ours will be conventionalmissiles. BrahMos missile is offering tremendous capabilities,” said Mishra.
Another major area where capabilities are being increased is the accuracyof missiles. It has improved from 30 metre to 10 metre and now the targetis one metre, he said. He also said a new lighter version of air-launchedBrahMos is at a drawing board stage. The current air-launched missile islaunched from specialized Su 30 MKI fighter aircrafts. The newer one isdesigned for lighter platforms like Mig 29 or even India’s indigenous LightCombat Aircraft (LCA) – Tejas. Efforts are being made to increase the rangeof missile from 290 kilometre to 415 km and even beyond, he said.
BrahMos is one of its kind of cruise missile anywhere in the world, whichcan fly at a speed three times that of sound (Mach 3), can be launched fromland, air and sea. The naval version can be launched from both ships andsubmarine. It can be used against targets on land and in the sea. Acombination of the trajectory of the missile and speed gives itstealth-like capability making it difficult being detected by a RADAR andtherefore being intercepted by anti-missile systems.
Mishra said that orders are pouring in from Indian armed forces and Indiancompanies like L&T should grab the opportunity to cater to increasingorders. Inquiries are also coming from foreign buyers but it is up to thecentral government to decide whom we should sell this unique weapon. As ofnow Indian armed forces are the only ones to use this missile.