70% indigenous BrahMos cruise missile test-fired

An improved version of the Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha, on Thursday.

The launch was conducted by Brahmos Aerospace, a joint venture between India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and NPO Mashinostroyeniya, the Russian rocket agency that developed the Russian part of BrahMos.

While BrahMos was originally 50 per cent built in India, the missile tested on Thursday had an increased indigenous content of 70 per cent, say senior DRDO officials. In what the DRDO describes as a “text-book flight”, it announced the missile followed its predicted trajectory and met all its mission objectives.

“The highly manouverable missile cruised at supersonic speed for its maximum range and all mission objectives were met. The missile was equipped with advanced indigenous technologies and followed a modified optimal trajectory for enhanced efficiency and improved performance,” stated the DRDO after the flight.

The DRDO said the flight test was monitored by all the ITR range sensors, “including telemetry, radar, and electro-optical tracking systems deployed across the eastern coast and the down range ships”.

The BrahMos is one of the world’s premier cruise missiles. It flies at a supersonic 2.8 Mach (almost 3,000 km per hour), too fast for enemy fighters to intercept and shoot down. Conventional cruise missiles, such as the US military’s Tomahawk, travel at a subsonic 890 km per hour, making them vulnerable to supersonic fighters.

In wartime, the unmanned BrahMos would be used in the opening stages for pinpoint strikes on high-value targets — such as air bases, headquarters, key roads, and railways or logistics dumps – which are too heavily defended for manned fighters to attack.

Through incremental improvement and progressive testing, the BrahMos has become a key element of the strike power of all three services. It is launched from all four dimensions: ground launchers, aircraft, surface warships and submarines.

The Army operates four BrahMos regiments, including missiles programmed for “steep dive” attacks on India’s Himalayan frontiers. These missiles skim over high mountain ridgelines before diving steeply onto their targets on the valley floor.

Each BrahMos regiment, which is a fully mobile entity with a command post, four missile-launcher vehicles and several missile carriers to carry its complement of 90 missiles, costs some ~2,000 crore. Each individual missile costs ~15 crore.

Even so, the Army is on track to buy two more regiments of these lethal missiles. With the missile having been recently tested to a range of 400 kilometres, the 5th and 6th BrahMos regiments are expected to be equipped with the longer-range version.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has also developed an air-launched version of the BrahMos that is fired from the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter. A full squadron of 21 Sukhoi-30MKIs kitted to fire the BrahMos air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), is stationed at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. From here, the long-range Sukhois can strike targets in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, or the northern Indian Ocean.

In an exercise in May 2019, Sukhoi-30MKIs flew from Thanjavur to strike a target 3,000 km away with BrahMos missiles, refuelling in mid-flight on their way out as well as back.

That Navy has also chosen the BrahMos as its standard ship-launched cruise missile (SLCM). All the Navy’s frigates and destroyers are now being built to carry the BrahMos in vertical-launch canisters — eight missiles in each frigate and 16 in each destroyer. BrahMos is already carried by the indigenous Project 15B destroyers, but are being integrated into the Talwar-class frigates being built in Russia.

Saab awarded Indian contract for AT4 support weapon

For over three decades, the Indian infantry platoon has carried the so-called 84 mm Carl Gustaf man-portable rocket launcher to destroy enemy tanks, or to bring down a brick or concrete hut onto a militant hiding inside. On Thursday, the Army chose a new generation of Saab’s man-portable weapon — called AT4 — a play on its 84 mm calibre, as well as its full form, “anti-tank” — as the Indian infantryman’s single-shot, disposable anti-armour or urban combat weapon.

The contract with the MoD was signed by FFV Ordnance AB, responsible for Saab’s ground combat offer in India. “We are honoured that the Armed Forces, which are users of our Carl-Gustaf system, have selected Saab for their single-shot weapon need. The Indian Army and Indian Air Force can be confident in the knowledge that they have the necessary firepower to give them the advantage,” said Görgen Johansson of Saab.