IAF could soon get supersonic BrahMos missile

Coimbatore, Oct 24 (ANI): Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Executive and Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, has said that the development and induction of BrahMos, India's supersonic cruise missile for the Indian Air Force will be completed soon.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Pillai said: "Recently the missile was tested for 'steep dive attack' capability, as demanded by the Army.

"The recent attempt was to see that it gives higher performance. On that ground we thought that we should prove the attack mode as well. That is how we did steep-dive mission, which also went very successfully. So we have got a missile, which is capable of multiple missions... form, multiple platform, with multiple types of trajectories. And which has become very universal, which nobody in the world has got today," he added.

The missile had already been inducted into the Indian Army and Navy. The missile had a speed of Mach 2.8.

"We are producing now for the navy, as well as for the army. Large numbers of ships in the Indian Navy will be having BrahMos missiles and also the army will be having at the land range," he said.

Pillai further said efforts were underway to increase the speed of the missile from Mach 2.8 to Mach 5 or Mach 7, taking it from the supersonic to hypersonic category.

India test-fired an advanced version of a supersonic cruise missile in September, as part of the country's drive to boost its defence system.

The missile can fly at 2.8 times the speed of sound, and can carry conventional warheads up to 300 kg for a range of 290 km.

India and Russia are jointly designing the BrahMos missile. It is a supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, ships, aircraft and land-based Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL).

The BrahMos missile is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant booster and a liquid propellant ram-jet system. (ANI)