Having established its credibility as the weapon of choice for the Indian Armed Forces, BRAHMOS achieved one more incredible milestone in January 2022. Rightfully reckoned as the world’s best and deadliest cruise missile and having generated a lot of interest among several nations across continents who had strongly desired to acquire the powerful missile for their military, BRAHMOS became India’s first full-fledged weapon to be exported to a foreign nation. On January 28, 2022, BrahMos Aerospace signed a historic contract with the Department of National Defense of the Republic of Philippines to supply shore-based anti-ship BRAHMOS systems for the Philippines Marines. It became the first-ever export deal for BRAHMOS.
In 1998, India signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with Russia to design, develop, manufacture and market BRAHMOS, a supersonic cruise missile. The weapon was to be jointly developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPOM, and would be launchable from land, aircraft, ships and submarines.
BRAHMOS is a modification of Soviet era anti-ship missile (Oniks/ Yakhont) developed by the Reutov Design Bureau in the late 1980s. The weapon derived its name from India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva rivers. The first test launch was conducted on June 12, 2001, at the Chandipur range in Odisha, India, and subsequently, production of the missile began at enterprises in both countries.
Development of the highly versatile, state-of-the-art tactical missile was a natural progression in India’s quest to develop various platforms and weapon systems for its military, either on its own or with a partner. The BrahMos programme thus became the first ‘Make-in-India’ venture.
According to Mr. Atul Dinkar Rane, DG (BrahMos, DRDO) and CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace, “BRAHMOS is an unparalleled weapon designed for modern network-centric warfare operations. The tactical missile uniquely combines speed, precision, firepower, manouverability and versatility. That’s what makes it world’s best, fastest and deadliest.”
BRAHMOS is technically a ramjet-powered supersonic cruise missile with a solid propellant booster that can be launched from land-based canisters, submarines, ships and combat aircraft. Travelling at a top speed of Mach 2.8, it is the world’s fastest cruise missile, about almost three times faster than the American subsonic Harpoon cruise missile. Since its maiden successful test firing conducted on June 12, 2001, BRAHMOS has undergone a record number of nearly 100 test firings to date from land, sea, sub-sea and air platforms, thereby validating its multifarious capability to completely annihilate high-value ground and sea-based targets with ultimate speed, pin-point accuracy and devastating firepower in all weather conditions by day and night.
One of its special features is its ability to fly extremely close to the ground to avoid missile defence systems. In fact, during the terminal phase, the missile can fly as low as 10 metres to the ground. In the final phase, the missile relies on active radar seeker or inertial guidance.
While the Indian Army started deploying the BRAHMOS land-attack (LACM) variant in 2007, Indian Navy inducted the versatile weapon in both anti-ship and land-attack configurations onboard its frontline surface warfare platforms from 2005 onward. In 2014, the Indian Air Force (IAF) raised the land-attack BRAHMOS squadron.
On November 22, 2017, the world-class BrahMos programme achieved yet another historic milestone when the IAF successfully test-fired the advanced air-launched version (ALCM) of the weapon for the very first time from its frontline Sukhoi-30MKI strike fighter against a sea-surface target in the Bay of Bengal, thereby creating history and making India the first and only country in the world to complete the “supersonic cruise missile triad.”
BrahMos Aerospace – the producer of the formidable BRAHMOS Weapon System – thus became the first defence entity in the world to successfully integrate and flight test the heaviest air-borne weapon from a super-maneuverable fighter platform. The IAF conducted a second successful test firing of the BRAHMOS air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) on May 22, 2019 against a land target in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands region.
In 2019, the supersonic cruise missile underwent a number of successful test firings from India’s land, sea and air platforms. The BRAHMOS anti-ship version was launched successfully in November 2019 from an Indian Navy platform. On December 17, 2019, BRAHMOS-A was tested yet again from the Su-30 fighter in ‘user configuration’ against a ship target and successfully met all mission objectives. In December 2019, two successful test firings of the missile – one from Su-30MKI fighter aircraft against a sea target, and another from a land-based mobile launcher – were conducted.
On January 20, 2020, the Indian Air Force (IAF) commissioned the “Tigersharks” squadron of Su-30MKI fighters armed with the deadly BRAHMOS ALCM at a Southern Indian base. This became a vital military asset to keep a ‘strategic eye’ over the Indian Ocean Region.
Sharing an important design/production aspect with this author, BRAHMOS Aerospace Chief General Manger (Marketing & Promotion) Praveen Pathak said, “The air-launched variant had to be made 500-kg lighter than the land/naval variants. One of the major challenges DRDO scientists had to overcome was the optimisation of transfer-alignment inertial sensors. Thankfully, the experience of the IAF flight test crew and the dedicated and synergistic efforts of the IAF, DRDO and HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.) ensured that the integration was smooth. Altogether, it proved India’s ability to undertake such a complex (weapon-platform) integration on its own.”.
“Since its inception over two decades ago, the BrahMos JV has continued to evolve and scaled newer heights. From being the Indian Armed Force’s ‘weapon of choice’ to becoming India’s first full-fledged weapon to be exported to a foreign nation, the JV has come a long way. With this historic export order, the JV has successfully realised its ‘Mind to Market’ vision” Rane, the BrahMos Chief, says proudly.
The India-Russia JV entity has also embarked on yet another journey to design and develop the BRAHMOS Next Generation (NG) weapon. The futuristic missile incorporating smaller, smarter, stealthier features, would be integrated onto a wider number of modern-day military platforms in more numbers.
The author, a strategic analyst and former spokesperson, Defence Ministry and India Army, can be contacted at wordsword02@gmail.com
