India likely to export its BrahMos missile



by Staff Writers



New Delhi (UPI) Aug 19, 2010



India will export its indigenously built BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, but only after all Indian military needs have been met, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said.

Foreign sales are allowed under the 1998 intergovernmental agreement signed by India and Russia that formed the joint venture for the missile's manufacture in India, Antony said in a written response to a question in the country's Parliament, the Lok Sabha.

The missile will be inducted in the armed forces of India and Russia and also will be exported to friendly countries. The Indian government is in consultation with Russia, and exports will take into account the security needs of both countries, he said.

Several countries have shown an interest, he said, but no decisions have been made about who the customers would be or when the BrahMos will be available for export. The move already has the approval of the Indo-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Military Technical Cooperation for Export.

BrahMos Aerospace, the joint venture company, is 50.5 percent Indian-government owned and the Russian government has 49.5 percent. The name BrahMos is derived from two rivers, India's Brahmaputra and Russia's Moskva.

In March the Indian government announced it is getting ready to induct the reduced-weight air-launched version of the BrahMos into the air force on the Sukhoi SU-30 MK-1 fighter aircraft by 2012.

The two-stage supersonic version, with its solid propellant engine, reaches Mach 3. But a hypersonic version is under development, the company said. It will use scram-jet engines, in place of ramjet, and reach Mach 6.

Earlier this year India successfully tested a maneuverable version of the BrahMos. The vertical-launch version of the 180-mile-range BrahMos was tested from the warship INS Ranvir in the Bay of Bengal off India's eastern coast, the PTI news agency reported.

The missile successfully adjusted directions to hit a target ship, making it "a perfect mission," BrahMos aerospace chief A. Sivathanu Pillai was quoted as saying. "After today's test, India has become the first and only country in the world to have a maneuverable supersonic cruise missile in its inventory."

The BrahMos can carry a 440-pound conventional warhead. The inclined-launch variants of the missile are already in service with the Indian navy and army. Air- and submarine-launch variants are in development.

India is also developing a subsonic Nirbhav cruise missile that is "getting into some shape," V. K. Saraswat, scientific adviser to the defense minister and the head of the Defense Research and Development Organization, said in April.

The 19-foot-long and 1.5-foot-wide missile will have a range of 650 miles, reach Mach 0.7 and be capable of delivering more than 20 types of warheads.