BrahMos is not only the first but also the only super-sonic cruise missile at present in the world. And this has put India in a different league altogether, says A. Sivathanu Pillai, founder CEO and Managing Director of Brahmos Aerospace. He was in the city on Saturday to deliver the endowment lecture on the occasion of GITAM University’s 35th Foundation Day celebrations.

In an exclusive chat with The Hindu , he said BrahMos, which was developed in collaboration with Russia, was not only a super-sonic missile - but also can be launched from multiple platforms such as aircraft, ship, submarine and land.

It can be fired at three seconds in succession, can target multiple targets and has stealth features.

“Most importantly, because of its low trajectory and stealth features, it is difficult to be detected, it has high precision and cannot be intercepted by any anti-missile system due to its supersonic speed,” he said.

According to Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, the future of missile technology depends on factors such speed, accuracy and stealth features. And in tune with that we have already graduated from the BrahMos Mark-III stage to Mark-VII and are working on developing a hypersonic BrahMos.

On how BrahMos had come into existence, Mr. Pillai, who had been a close associate of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said, “In the Iraq war we had seen how the American cruise missiles had won the war for them. Till then we were focussing on long range missiles, strategic missiles, defensive ones and tactical and ballistic missiles. The Iraq experience prompted us to develop a cruise missile and we have developed the best one in the world.”

“BrahMos is way ahead of the American Tomahawk cruise missiles on a number of counts. The land and sea version has already been inducted and the underwater and air version is on test runs,” he said.