NEW DELHI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0India and Russia have approved an extension to the range of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, doubling it to 600 kilometers, according to an official with the Indian Ministry\u00a0of\u00a0Defence (MoD).
The increased range of the BrahMos will double the standoff\u00a0engagement range to 600 kilometers for practically every platform that\u00a0uses\u00a0the cruise missile. Currently, the BrahMos is warship-launched\u00a0and\u00a0land-based, while the air version is still in the testing phase and likely will be adopted by year end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With 300-kilometers range, the BrahMos had to be deployed relatively closer to the intended area. Now there would be greater flexibility in\u00a0terms of deployment areas, thereby imparting surprise,” according to Rahul\u00a0Bhonsle, a retired Indian Army brigadier and defense analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BrahMos cruise missile project is produced by India-based BrahMos\u00a0Aerospace, set up in 1998, and is a joint venture between India’s\u00a0Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a scientist at DRDO, “only very minor changes in software and hardware are required”\u00a0to increase the\u00a0range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An Indian Navy official backed this claim. “BrahMos is a re-engineered version of [the] Russian P-800 Oniks\/Yakhont\u00a0anti-ship missile, and no major modification is required to achieve 600-kilometers range,” the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bhonsle agrees that the range of the BrahMos missile currently in use has a 600-kilometer range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There have been a number of assertions in the past from unspecific\u00a0sources that the range is actually around 600 kilometers,” Bhonsle said, adding that if it were true, modifications to the missile would likely be for stability and accuracy improvements and “not\u00a0necessarily\u00a0to enhance range.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, this\u00a0does\u00a0not preclude extensive testing to accurately assess varied parameters,” he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1998, India received the transfer of technology for the BrahMos cruise missile\u00a0with a\u00a0range of less than 300 kilometers because India was not yet a member\u00a0of MTCR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
“The Indian Army has always preferred a cruise missile over a\u00a0ballistic\u00a0missile as the cruise missiles can fly at lower height\u00a0\u2014\u00a0evading radars\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and hit targets accurately,” an Indian Army official noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India has been developing the Nirbhay cruise missile for more than seven years, but the indigenous project is only at the testing stage, and its\u00a0timeline for induction is unknown.\u00a0DRDO has not tested the Nirbhay\u00a0ever since it failed a test in October 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bhonsle believes the improved\u00a0BrahMos capability\u00a0could damage the development\u00a0of the Nirbhay missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Nirbhay program, which is DRDO’s cruise missile project, may now be given a quiet burial or remain a technology demonstrator as most of the\u00a0indigenous program[s] of the organization have been of late,” Bhonsle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DRDO scientist, however, noted that the two supersonic missiles involve two\u00a0different configurations: BrahMos has a medium-range capability, whereas Nirbhay has a larger 1,000-kilometer range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India and Russia have approved an extension to the range of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, doubling it to 600 kilometers, according to an official with the Indian Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":51725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,11,14,16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3390],"class_list":["post-24163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-global","category-land","category-naval"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5JZRETSQ75GYJGT64G64GNYJMQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2016\/10\/27\/india-to-double-brahmos-cruise-missile-range\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n