Last week, we saw a war-like situation between India and Pakistan, when on 7th May India destroyed Pakistan-based nine terror camps, and after that, what happened, you all know. But one word which has been getting prominence in all the media is BrahMos, which is the name given to the missile used by India on 10th May morning to destroy Pakistan Air Force bases. After this attack, Pakistan asked the USA to intervene for a ceasefire.
Brahmos missile is built through India-Russia collaboration, and BrahMos name comes from the Indian river Brahmaputra and Russian river Moskva. It is a long range ‘ramjet supersonic cruise missile’ that can be launched from submarines, ships, and fighter planes. It is a joint venture between The Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM), who together formed BrahMos Aerospace.
BrahMos is considered an extremely versatile ‘Fire and Forget” type missile. Yesterday Defence Minister Rajnath Singh officially inaugurated BrahMos integration and Testing facility Centre in Lucknow, when Indian people came to know about BrahMos missile.
How and Why was the BrahMos Developed?
From the 1980s under the guidance of De APJ Abdul Kalam, India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme Started, and began developing Agni series of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. In the 1990s, India’s policy makers felt the need of for equipping the armed forces with cruise missiles- a category of guided missiles that traverse the majority of their flight path at almost constant speed to deliver warheads with high precision.
After initial talks with Russia, an agreement was signed in Moscow in February 1998 by Dr Kalam, who then headed DRDO. This agreement led to formation of BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between DRDO and NPOM. The entity was set up with a mandate to design develop, and manufacture a supersonic, high-precision cruise missile and its variants. India holds 50.5% and Russia 49.5% share in this joint venture.
What is the Anatomy of a BrahMos Missile?
It is a two-stage missile with solid propellant booster engine. Its first stage brings the missile to a supersonic speed, greater than the speed of sound, and it then get separated. The second stage of the liquid ramjet then fires and thrusts missile to three times the speed of sound in its cruise phase. A liquid ramjet is an air-breathing jet engine that uses liquid fuel, which is injected into the high-speed airstream and ignited to produce thrust. It can achieve a cruising altitude of 15 kilometers and a terminal altitude as low as 10 meters.
The versions of BrahMos that are currently being tested at an extended range that can hit targets up to 350 Kms, as compared to its original range of 290Km. Even higher ranges of up to 800 Kms, and hypersonic speed of five times speed of sound, are said to be on the cards.
The Many Variants of BrahMos
1 Ship Based Variant– It can be fired vertically ot inclined, and from both moving and static naval platforms.. The Indian navy inducted BrahMos on its frontline warships from 2005, and it can hit sea-based targets beyond the radar horizon.
2 The Land-Based system– This land-based BrahMos complex has four to six mobile autonomous launchers. Each launcher has three missiles on board that can be fired almost simultaneously on three different targets and in different configurations. Following upgrades, it can hit targets at a range of up to 400 Kms with precision. The ground system come with an AC cabin with Nuclear, biological and Chemical (NBC) protection.
3 The air-Launched version– The BrahMos Air Launched cruise Missile (ALCM) is the heaviest missile to arm India’s frontline fighter jets
4 The Submarine-Launched version- This version can be launched from around 50 meters below the surface of water. The canister-stored missile is launched vertically from a pressure hull of a submarine and uses different settings for underwater and out-of-water-flights
5 The Futuristic Brahmos-NG– Development is underway for futuristic version of BrahMos, known as the BrahMos-NG (Next Generation), primarily for air and naval applications. This version will have reduced dimensions and weight, next generation stealth features, greater effectiveness against Electronic counter-countermeasure (ECCM), higher versatility for underwater combat launch capability from a torpedo tube.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
12th April 2025