The pairing of Su-30MKI fighter jets and the widely acclaimed Brahmos missile form a lethal combination, according to India's military planners, giving the South Asian country a "strategic advantage" over its regional rivals.
Furthermore, stocking the Su-30MKI combat aircraft with the Brahmos missiles has exponentially increased India's "deterrence value", Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari - head of the Indian Air Force - said earlier this year.
Brahmos/Su-30MKI Pairing: Decisive Edge Over India's Rivals
Notably, the Su-30MKIs are the only planes in the IAF fleet from which the air variant of the Brahmos could be fired.
But as the Brahmos travels at a supersonic speed of nearly Mach 3 (3,700 km per hour), intercepting it becomes almost impossible, a former IAF officer told Sputnik India in August.
Air Marshal (Retd) Muthumanikam Matheswaran, pointed out that air defense systems worldwide, except Russia's S-400, are not fully equipped to neutralise supersonic missiles, especially the Brahmos.
In this context, the IAF has demanded that Brahmos Aerospace develop smaller models of the missile that could be incorporated into the force's other aircraft such as the LCA Tejas, MiG-29, and Mirage-2000.
Brahmos missile
© AP Photo / MANISH SWARUP
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The maiden flight of a Sukhoi-30MKI carrying a Brahmos missile was conducted in 2017, when India's fourth-generation strike fighter successfully hit a target in the waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Subsequently, the IAF conducted a series of tests from the Su-30MKI, which confirmed in 2019 that the Brahmos air-launched cruise missile's (ALCM) had "impeccable land attack and anti-ship capability in all weather conditions".
This allows the IAF to dominate modern combat operations in the sky as the lethal combination of the supersonic aircraft and Brahmos extends its reach and capacity to carry out strikes against a whole host of adversaries.
In January 2020, the IAF's first squadron of Su-30 MKI combat planes equipped with the Brahmos ALCMs was incorporated into service at the Thanjavur airbase in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, giving the country's armed forces a major boost in the strategically located Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
The Su-30MKIs have a range of more than 1,800 miles without refueling. These frontline jets of the IAF can travel at a speed of almost Mach 2 (2,470 km per hour) up to an altitude of 17km with a weapon payload of 8,000kg.