Providing further impetus to Aatmanirbharta (self-reliant India) in defence production, the Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) signed a contract today with M/s BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. (BAPL) for acquisition of additional dual-role capable Surface to Surface BrahMos missiles at an overall approximate cost of ? 1700 Crore under “Buy-Indian” Category. Induction of these dual-role capable Missiles is going to significantly enhance the operational capability of Indian Navy (IN) fleet assets.
It is notable that BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. is a Joint Venture (JV) between the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya making crucial contribution to augment the new generation Surface-to-Surface Missiles (SSMs) with enhanced range and dual role capability for land as well as anti-ship attacks. This contract is going to give further boost to indigenous production of critical weapon system and ammunition with active participation of indigenous industry.
The BrahMos (also designated as PJ-10) is a medium-range stealth ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft or land, notably being the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world. It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. It is claimed to be the world’s fastest Anti-Ship Cruise Missile currently in operation.
BrahMos claims it has the capability of attacking surface targets by flying as low as five metres in altitude and the maximum altitude it can fly is 15,000 metres. It can gain a speed of Mach 3.5, and has a maximum range of 650 km. The ship-launched and land-based missiles can carry a 200 kg warhead, whereas the aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A) can carry a 300 kg warhead. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.
