The Indian Army has received the first battalion of BrahMos coastal supersonic mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, which were developed by the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Airspace Ltd. The Indian Navy was the first to get these missiles, and Indian generals also want to install BrahMos missiles on the Sukhoi Su-30-MKI Flanker multi-purpose fighters being produced by New Delhi under a Russian license.
BrahMos Airspace Ltd. was established in India in 1998 by the Machine Building Research and Production Association (NPO) from Reutov, outside Moscow, and the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of the Indian Defense Ministry for the purpose of mastering production of these supersonic anti-ship missiles. Company documents said the new joint venture would develop, produce, market and sell BrahMos cruise missiles.
The governments of Russia and India also pledged to observe the Missile Technology Control Regime and not to use the results of R&D projects for creating new missile systems and upgrading operational systems. In short, BrahMos missiles, which are named after the Moskva River and the Brahmaputra River, will not be fitted with nuclear warheads and will have a range of just 300 km.
The BrahMos missile is a successor to the Yakhont anti-ship missile, an export version of Russia's Onyx anti-ship missile, which was adopted by the Russian Navy only in 2002.
The first BrahMos missile was test-fired from a coastal launcher on June 12, 2001 and was subsequently installed on Indian warships. The Indian Navy's destroyer Rajput, a revamped Soviet-made anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ship [Project 61ME], was the first to receive these missiles. Two of the Rajput's obsolete Termit anti-ship missile systems in her bow section were dismantled at the Mumbai shipyard and replaced with two twin-mounted BrahMos missile systems. All tests carried out with these launchers and the new missile system proved successful. Consequently, the Indian Defense Ministry decided to equip all five destroyers of Project 61ME with these missiles. Brahmos missiles will also be installed on Project 15A Bangalore-class guided-missile destroyers and Project 17 guided-missile frigates, which are larger versions of Project 11356 Talvar-class frigates, and which are to be constructed at Mazagon Dock Limited, India's best shipbuilder. Conventional Amur-class submarines being offered by Russia to India may also be used as BrahMos missile platforms.
The St. Petersburg-based Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering has developed the Amur-950 submarine, featuring new anti-ship missiles inside vertical silos, and displayed her at arms fairs in Abu Dhabi, Brazil and at the St. Petersburg international naval show. It is still unclear whether New Delhi will agree to buy this submarine or not, but the Indian Army is already equipping its coastal units with BrahMos missile systems.
Four available mobile three-missile ground launchers are to be placed on combat duty next year; their crews and service personnel have been training since 2005. Under the contract, the Indian Army will receive a mobile command center, 60 surface-to-surface missiles, the required training equipment and a logistics, support, storage and maintenance complex. Some of these missiles are to be replaced with anti-ship versions.
There are plans to deploy BrahMos missiles near India's nuclear-capable tactical missiles on the Indian-Pakistani border, while communications and reconnaissance satellites would handle target-acquisition problems.
In 2005, the Pakistani Army, which lacks supersonic cruise missiles, adopted the Babur subsonic cruise missile, which can easily be shot down by India's Russian-made surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. Experts explained New Delhi's decision to acquire the more accurate and faster BrahMos missiles by a desire to restore the regional balance of power.
Experts said BrahMos Airspace Ltd. would develop an upgraded version of the BrahMos cruise missile for the Su-30-MKI Flanker multi-purpose fighter. Russian and Indian designers have repeatedly displayed mock-ups of this fighter and its new missile on external stores at international arms shows, but it will take some time to develop, produce and adopt the missile.
This Russian-Indian joint venture has repeatedly proved its ability to fulfil its commitments on time and to turn out top-quality products. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Russian-Malaysian contract for the delivery of Su-30-MKM Flanker fighters to Kuala Lumpur stipulates that, apart from organic weaponry, they must be equipped with BrahMos anti-ship missiles. Foreign experts have said that BrahMos Airspace Ltd. can produce up to 1,000 such missiles in the next ten years. Some of these will be sold to third countries.
Russia and India are learning to make the most advanced weapons and sell them at a profit. Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam said no other country boasts such unique missiles. There is a good market for BrahMos, and our countries will actively promote this missile, said Dr. Kalam.
