BrahMos

Providing further impetus to Aatmanirbharta in defence production, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) signed a contract with M/s BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. (BAPL) for acquisition of additional dual-role capable Surface to Surface BrahMos missiles at an overall approximate cost of  ₹ 1700 Crore under “Buy-Indian” Category. 

Details –

• Induction of these dual-role capable Missiles is going to significantly enhance the operational capability of Indian Navy (IN) fleet assets.
• BrahMos, deployed by the Navy on its warships first in 2005, has the capability to hit sea-based targets beyond radar horizon.
• The naval variant was originally tested in October and December 2020 from the Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai and Rajput-class destroyer INS Ranvijay, respectively.
• This version of the missile has been designed to launch either in a vertical or a horizontal mode from moving/stationary assets to target both land and sea targets.
• The missiles, fired at a speed of 2.8 Mach or nearly three times the speed of sound, significantly increase the capability of the ships in engaging long-range targets.

About BrahMos –

• A combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
• Various versions of the BrahMos, including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested in the past. The earliest versions of the ship launched BrahMos and land-based system are in service of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army since 2005 and 2007 respectively.
• BrahMos is a two-stage missile with solid propellant booster as first stage and liquid ramjet as the second stage. The cruise missiles like BrahMos are a type of systems known as the ‘standoff range weapons’ which are fired from a range sufficient to allow the attacker to evade defensive fire from the adversary. These weapons are in the arsenal of most major militaries in the world.
• The versions of the BrahMos that are being tested have an extended range of around 450 kilometers (planned to be extended to 600 kilometres), as compared to its initial range of 290 kilometers (before signing of MTCR), with more versions of higher ranges currently under development.
• Brahmos is one of the fastest cruise missile currently operationally deployed with speed of Mach 2.8, which is 3 times more than the speed of sound. It operates on the “Fire and Forgets” principle i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.