AeroIndia 2009: Airborne version of BrahMos by 2012

The Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile BrahMos will be commissioned by the Indian Air Force in 2012, the head of BrahMos Aerospace said on Thursday. The sea-based and land-based versions of the world's fastest cruise missile have already been put into service with the Indian Army and Navy.

BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd was set up in 1998 as a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia to produce and sell the missiles domestically and internationally.

"The missile will be put in service in the air force in 2012," the company's chief executive officer, Sivathanu Pillai said, presenting the airborne version of the missile at the AeroIndia 2009 show in Bangalore.

BrahMos has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. It can effectively engage ground targets from an altitude as low as 10 m and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

"For the airborne version we had to reduce the mass of the missile as well as ensure aerodynamic stability after its separation from the aircraft. The air-launched platform has its own initial speed during the launch of the missile, so we have reduced the size of the booster. Now the missile is ready," Pillai had told a Russian news agency last year.

The Indian Air Force has chosen Russian-made Su-30 MKI (NATO: Flanker-H) multirole fighter as a trial platform for the missile, but it will take up to four years to complete the upgrade of the aircraft so that it can carry and launch BrahMos missiles, the official added.

India is planning to produce at least 140 Su-30MKI fighters by 2014 under a Russian license with full technology transfer rights. Analysts estimate that India could purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its armed forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to other countries.

During a visit by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov to India last year, the two sides had also agreed to develop a hypersonic version of the missile, to be known as BrahMos-2.