| Air
launched version of BrahMos cruise missile to be tested in 2009
27 November 2007
The re-design
and development of the air-launched version of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile
has been completed and the missile is ready for testing, defence minister AK Antony
informed house member Raghuveer Singh Koshal through a written reply. The
missile has already been successfully developed for the Indian Navy and the Indian
Army. Development of the air version had earlier been sanctioned, and work on
integrating the missile with the Su-30MKI aircraft of the Indian Air Force has
been progressing, the minister said. According
to the defence minister, suitable universal launchers for different types of aircraft
have also been designed and tests on these air-launched versions would be carried
out in 2009. Earlier
reports had indicated that the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Limited
might eventually manufacture about 1,000 supersonic cruise missiles over a period
of ten years. Chile,
Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are potential
clients of this unique product.  The
two-stage solid propulsion missile is about eight meters in length, with a takeoff
weight of about three tons. It has a range of 290 kilometres and flies at three
times the speed of sound to deliver a 200-300-kilogramme warhead on the target.
The
name BrahMos fuses the names of the Indian Brahmaputra and Russian Moskva rivers.
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