India, Russia to develop aircraft version of BrahMos missile

Dec 17, 2005, 17:42 GMT

New Delhi - India and Russia have planned an aircraft version of their jointly-developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, it was reported Saturday.

'Development for the aircraft version is a new initiative, which was not originally contemplated. Towards that, 50 million dollars in the company has been invested by India and Russia,' BrahMos aerospace chief executive A.S. Pillai was quoted by the local media as saying.

The missile will be integrated with the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters by 2007, the Economic Times reported.

The BrahMos has been developed for the Indian Navy and Army. The navy is slated to implement the missile system after successful testing for its anti-ship role.

The land version of the missile has been designed for use by the Indian Army.

The Army has already conducted some trials of the missile, which has a strike range of 290 kilometres and weighs about 3 tons. More than one metre in length, it can carry a conventional warhead weighing 200 to 300 kilogrammes.

BrahMos - named after the Indian and Russian rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva - has been configured for launch from the ground, a ship, a submarine or aircraft. It can achieve speeds of up to 2.8 Mach, or nearly three times the speed of sound.