India, Russia to develop BrahMos-2 in next five years

New Delhi, Feb 10 (UNI) Stepping up their military cooperation, India and Russia will develop BrahMos-2, an upgraded version of the BrahMos cruise missile, in the next five years.

''Military cooperation (between Russia and India) is based on the latest achievements in the Defense industry. A case in point is the BrahMos-2. In the coming five years, the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace, founded in 1998, will produce the missile for India's Defense Ministry,'' RIA Novosti said today.

BrahMos-2, a new tactical cruise missile named after Brahmaputra River and Russia's Moskva River, is the upgraded version of BrahMos-1.

At five times the speed of sound, the BrahMos-2 is fast enough to overcome any air defence system.

More than 20 Russian plants and design bureaux, including the leading Russian missile producers Strela and Mashinostroyeniye research and production association, will be involved in the production of the new weapon.

The main feature of this missile is its versatility. It can be based on vehicles, ships, submarines and aircraft.

''In other words, the BrahMos missile can be supplied to every branch of the armed forces,'' it added.

On June 21 last year, India's Ground Forces received their first BrahMos-1 missile, mounted on a Tatra truck chassis. A series of successful test launches had already confirmed the high combat qualities and effectiveness of the new weapon.

The Defence Ministry has already announced that the missile would be soon supplied to the Air Force for Russian-built multi-role Su-30MKI fighters.

The Indian Navy received the BrahMos-1 in 2006.

The BrahMos-1 has a range of 290 KM, a cruise speed of 920 meters per second, and carries an up to 300-kilogram warhead.

The missile was designed to surpass the American Harpoon, at that time the best foreign anti-ship missile.

The BrahMos missile has inherited all the best characteristics of its Russian predecessors--over the horizon (OTH) range, self-sustainability (fire-and-forget principle), a set of flexible ('low', 'high-low') trajectories, supersonic velocity at all stages of flight, full commonality for various carriers and the ability to avoid detection by radar.

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