As BrahMos Aerospace prepares to deliver anti-ship missile batteries to the Philippine armed forces, its first foreign customer, the company's CEO, Atul Dinkar Rane, believes that the BrahMos missile - currently touted as the world's fastest missile - is perfectly suited for the ASEAN region to protect its Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
“BrahMos can work as a powerful deterrent system to safeguard the EEZs of many maritime nations. As a low-cost and highly effective weapon having precision firepower, it can be fitted on frontline warships like missile destroyers and frigates to undertake both anti-ship and land-attack missions from stand-off ranges,” Rane stated.
The Indian scientist-cum-CEO explained that mobile anti-ship variant of BrahMos could be deployed for coastal defense purposes or launched in a salvo mode.
“BrahMos has become a powerful weapon of choice to undertake both littoral and deep-sea combat operations,” Rane underlined.
INS Mormugao, the latest guided-missile Destroyer, successfully hit 'Bulls Eye' during her maiden Brahmos Supersonic cruise missile firing
© Photo : Indian Navy
The South China Sea, which borders China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei has been witnessing disputes between Beijing and southeast Asian nations due to conflicting maritime claims.
Rane also stated that BrahMos Aerospace was in negotiations with several countries across the world for exporting the supersonic cruise missile, adding that more foreign orders for the India-Russia JV could happen in coming months.
“Be it in Asia, Africa or South America, many countries have come forward to acquire BrahMos weapon system,” he revealed.
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has been jointly developed by India’s Defense, Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia’s rocket-design agency NPO Mashinostroyeniya. It can be launched from land, ship, underwater and air platforms.
BrahMos to Remain Global ‘Market Leader’ for Years Ahead
The current version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile will remain a global “market leader” for at least a decade, Rane asserted. “We don’t see any other missile coming close to the specifications of BrahMos in coming years,” Rane underscored.
The Indian scientist explained that BrahMos has been considered as the world’s best, fastest and deadliest supersonic cruise missile because of its speed, pinpoint accuracy of hit as well as the “devastating power of impact due to high kinetic energy”.
“BrahMos can be launched in land-to-land, land-to-sea, sea-to-land, sea-to-sea, subsea-to-land, subsea-to-sea, air-to-land and air-to-sea configurations. India’s tri-services have operationalised BRAHMOS, which has become a powerful force multiplier for them,” Rane noted.
The CEO of India-Russia JV expressed confidence that the upcoming BrahMos-NG missile, the next-generation version of BrahMos, will improve upon the specifications of the current version.
“With its higher speed, manoeuvrability and other enhanced traits, this new weapon will redefine precision firepower in today and tomorrow’s battlefields. We plan to come out with a prototype of this new missile and conduct a test firing soon. We believe there will be no competitors for BrahMos—NG in coming decades and beyond,” Rane said.
Rane stated that the BrahMos-NG variant will be tested on the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in coming years. At present, Sukhoi-30 jets are carrying a BrahMos-A missile, the current version of the weapon.
“Once we are successful in integrating and testing it from the Sukhoi, we will integrate BRAHMOS-NG on LCA Tejas and other fighter platforms, as desired by the customer (the Indian Air Force),” the Indian CEO spelled out.
Hypersonic BrahMos is ‘on Radar’
Rane also disclosed during the interview that the hypersonic BrahMos missile was on the “radar” of the company.
“Many countries, including India and Russia, are working on hypersonic missiles. DRDO is working on this technology. Hypersonic BrahMos is definitely on our radar,” he stressed.
He added that DRDO and NPOM could possibly undertake joint development of hypersonic missiles in the future.