BrahMos Aerospace to develop new hypersonic missile

Success of BrahMos, world's first and only operational supersonic cruise missile developed by an Indo-Russian joint venture- BrahMos Aerospace- has paved way for another similar endeavour between the two countries. CEO and managing director of BrahMos Aerospace A SivathanuPillai while sharing the aforementioned with the TOI during a visit to the city also added that BrahMos can be exported to about 14 countries which have shown a keen interest in buying variants of the missile after both the governments chalk out the nitty-gritties of the same.

Earlier Russian counterparts of BrahMos had informed India about the interest shown by various countries in the supersonic cruise missile. Pillai was however quick to add that the basic agenda for developing this 'uninterceptable' supersonic cruise missile is to fulfill our own defence requirements. "Thereafter both the governments have to give the nod for exporting of BrahMos to our friendly countries", said Pillai.

Hypersonic cruise missile shall soon follow BrahMos. Pillai said that the hypersonic version shall cruise at Mach 7, seven times the speed of sound. When asked about the air-launched version of BrahMos which is being integrated with Su-30 MKI aircraft, he said that the same is undergoing development and the first of its flight trials or test launches shall take place in mid-2014. He also urged upon the private industry to contribute towards research and development of defence sector.


BrahMos the supersonic cruise missiles with a range of 290 kms and a cruising speed of 2.8 -3 Mach. Pillai shared that the focus would be on participation of local industry for indigenous production. BrahMos was setup with a 50.5% funding from India and 49.5% from Russia and has already made profits, much more than the set up cost.