Underwater, Air-to-Air roles targeted for BrahMos Cruise Missile; Trials by 2011-end

2011-03-13 INDIA DEFENCE

The BrahMos cruise missile programme is a joint venture between the Indian DRDO and the Russian NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It is the world's fastest cruise missile in operation and is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. In recent interviews given to local media by BrahMos Aerospace chief A. Sivathanu Pillai, it was discovered that underwater and air-to-air capabilities are being sought for. "If we are able to reduce the weight of the missile below two tonnes, we can deploy it on the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and we are looking to doing that in future. The trials of launching BrahMos cruise missile from air will begin in 2012 and there will be no delay in the programme due to this." "We will test-fire the underwater version by the end of this year after we get the pontoon." The test-firing missile would be done from a pontoon at the Integrated Test Range in Balasore on the Orissa coast from a DRDO facility.