BrahMos has become the 'Supersonic Darling' of the world because it is nearly "impossible" to detect it due to its supersonic speed, an Indian Navy veteran has said.
"BrahMos is the world's 'Supersonic Darling' because once it goes into supersonic mode with Mach-3 speed, it gives very little time to the enemy to respond or react to an attack from the missile," Commodore (retired) Seshadri Vasan told Sputnik India on Wednesday.
His remarks came in the wake of BrahMos Aerospace's disclosure that the widely acclaimed rocket's order books had touched the $7 billion mark.
"The portfolio of orders of BrahMos has already reached $7 billion, which includes both Indian and export orders," Pravin Pathak, the company's export director, said at the World Defence Show in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Against this background, Vasan, who is currently the director of the Chennai-based military think tank Centre for China Studies (C3S) stated that many factors have enabled the BrahMos to become a great success story.
BrahMos: Great Indo-Russia Success Story
"The first being the collaboration with Russia, and thereafter the amount of time, money, and effort which has been invested in refining the entire product - the fact that India has tested different variants - from a submarine, aircraft, land, and surface ships," he explained.
In addition to the multi-dimensional capabilities of the BrahMos, whenever India has carried out a test, it has given 100 percent results, Vasan underlined.
Besides, India's joining the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) helped it to expand the range of BrahMos which was earlier restricted to 295 km.
"As of today, there are approximately 12,000 BrahMos missiles in the Indian inventory across different platforms," the defense pundit noted.
He expressed that as far as exports of the Brahmos were concerned, other nations would like to have the most modern weapon system with them, and particularly, with its proven credentials, it holds phenomenal attraction for buyers.
Vasan asserted that India was proving to be a credible supplier of military platforms, which was encouraging foreign sovereign states to procure it for their militaries.
"The moment one has a first customer abroad, which in the case of the BrahMos is the Philippines, immediately the interest in a defense product goes up," he opined.
BrahMos rocket (desk)
© Sputnik
BrahMos – One of Its Kind in the World
On the other hand, retired DRDO scientist Ravi Gupta highlighted that BrahMos was one of its kind missiles in the world.
He pointed out that the precision, and maneuverability of the projectile were extraordinary and speed-wise, it was the only missile that was supersonic throughout its flying trajectory.
"One would not find any parallel to the BrahMos and whichever armed forces would have it in their arsenal, it would give them a cutting edge over their adversaries," Gupta said in a conversation with Sputnik India.
According to him, that was the reason BrahMos was finding a big export market as many countries were looking forward to inducting it into their armed forces because of its features.
"Moreover, the cost of production of a missile in India is much less than in most countries. When one considers the price of the BrahMos coupled with its technological superiority, it is a highly potent weapon for foreign nations to acquire from the South Asian country," Gupta concluded.