Russia's UAC to co-develop hypersonic BrahMos missile only if Russian Air Force interested

Moscow: Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) will participate in the joint development of a new cruise missile with India only if the Russian Air Force opts for it, so said the head of this umbrella   organisation for Russian aircraft manufacturers last week.

"Our participation will be certain only if we receive an official request to equip Russian fighters, the Su-MKI in particular, with these missiles. So far we have not received such a request," said UAC president Alexey Fyodorov.

BrahMos cruise missile

The UAC includes Ilyushin, Tupolev, Sukhoi, Antonov and Mikoyan, as well as companies involved in distribution of aircraft. It was set up last year to streamline the country's aircraft-building industry.

Last month, Russia and India announced plans to jointly develop a hypersonic cruise missile, now dubbed as the BrahMos-2 . The new missile will have a top speed of over Mach 5 and will match similar developments taking place around the world.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint Indo-Russian venture that designs, produces and markets BrahMos supersonic missiles, whose sea and land-based versions have been successfully tested and inducted by the Indian army and navy.