India, Russia working on most advanced weapon systems: Pillai

Tiruchirapalli, Feb 1 (UNI) India and Russia are working jointly to explore the possibility of developing one of the most advanced weapons systems, possibly the 'hypersonic cruise missile', which would be the first-of-its-kind in the world, a top Defence official today said.

Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of Indo-Russian Joint Venture Brahmos Aerospace, said, ''We are the leaders in supersonic missile system with the successful development of Brahmos Cruise Missile.

But, to sustain the leadership position, India has to start some work for which both the Russian and Indian Governments have given their initial clearance.'' Dr Pillai, who is also the Chief Controller of Research and Development Wing of Defence and Research Development Organization (DRDO), said work is in progress in this regard.

Though Brahmos is the world leader now, its position will not be sacrosanct as many countries will come up with new products which would better the supersonic cruise missile.

''We can survive only by being competitive. In order to prepare us to face the challenges, India is thinking of configuring a new weapons system which will be more advanced than Brahmos,'' he said.

When Russian Defence Minister Sergei Borisovich Ivanov was in India recently, there was a discussion to explore cooperation beyond Brahmos.

However, both the countries will initially focus on producing better and improved versions of the supersonic missile, which would be performance oriented and cost effective.

As an offshoot of the discussions, the action plans to be envisaged by Brahmos Aerospace would be crystallised in another six to 12 months, Dr Pillai said.

Special expert panels from India and Russia would take up these issues before a blue print was drawn up, he added.

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