From Frigates to Destroyers: How BrahMos Missiles Can Transform India’s Naval Strike Power

The Indian Navy has reportedly set a target of 2030 to equip its entire fleet of naval vessels with the widely acclaimed BrahMos missiles in what is being viewed as a game-changer in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), particularly after the splendid success of the Indo-Russian venture during Operation Sindoor earlier this year.

The BrahMos wreaked havoc against Pakistan, causing significant damage to their military bases, including the destruction of their runways, radar sites, and aircraft hangars, among others, according to Indian officials.

Given that the BrahMos wasn't intercepted by Pakistani air defences during Operation Sindoor, the thrust to arming India's naval boats with the projectile has only intensified, according to media.

Earlier this week, two brand new stealth frigates, INS Udaygiri and INS Himgiri, were inducted into the Indian Navy. Both vessels are equipped with BrahMos missiles.

By 2030, the South Asian nation's blue water force is expected to have 20 such frigates, each carrying eight vertical-launch BrahMos missiles.

What's more, the Indian Navy's new destroyers have 16 BrahMos launchers, unlike the previous ones that only have eight.

With the destroyers and frigates combined, the Indian Navy will be able to fire 300 BrahMos missiles in one go by 2030 from the sea.

"The benchmark now has become Operation Sindoor, where BrahMos was extensively used by the Indian Air Force (IAF), whereas there is a certain limitation on what a fighter jet can carry. But there is no such limitation on a warship", retired Commodore Seshadri Vasan, an Indian Navy veteran, who heads the think tank Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S), told Sputnik India.

Moreover, India's frigates and destroyers can be equipped with the new-generation BrahMos, which is believed to have a range of 800-900 km. That kind of range gives the Indian Navy a phenomenal amount of flexibility to fire them anywhere in the Arabian Sea and knock out enemy military assets within seconds, he added.

One should also not forget that the BrahMos is capable of hitting land targets. So, in a coordinated attack by the Air Force and Navy, including submarines, India would succeed in saturating an adversary's entire defence ecosystem. Furthermore, this kind of strike capability would allow India to hit targets at will, the military expert explained.

"As the world saw during Operation Sindoor, the supersonic speed, the S manoeuvre, and the flexible flying path of the BrahMos make it nearly impossible to intercept it. Therefore, its success rate will be and has been very high. The Circular Error of Probability (CEP) in the BrahMos' case, as was seen during the attacks carried out by the IAF on Pakistani military infrastructure, is just about a meter", Vasan emphasised.

In a nutshell, equipping the Indian Navy's entire fleet with BrahMos missiles is a massive value addition in terms of the anti-ship and anti-land capability being formed for these kinds of vessels, he concluded.

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