Next BrahMos missile targets Mach 7

Next BrahMos missile targets Mach 7

The chief executive officer of BrahMos Aerospace, A Sivathanu Pillai, on Friday said the next target of the Indo-Russian joint venture is to develop a hypersonic cruise missile with a speed of Mach 7. While delivering the 26th CSIR NAL Foundation Day lecture on self-reliance in aerospace technologies, Pillai said the missile would fly at seven times the speed of sound. “We are venturing into the hypersonic world where speed is the power. We want to reach Mach 7,” he said. The Centre of Excellence in High Speed Aerodynamics at the Indian Institute of Science and the Moscow Aviation Institute will play a key role in the research and development of the missile. The present BrahMos which is the only supersonic cruise missile in service has been inducted into the Indian Navy and Army. It has a range of 300km and can fly at a speed of Mach 3. The hypersonic version will have a scramjet engine in place of a ramjet. Pillai added that while a submarine version of the BrahMos is under development, work on the air launch version for the Indian Air Force, to be fit on the Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft, has been completed. “The missile is ready, once the modification on the Sukhoi-30 MKI’s is completed trials would be carried out,” Pillai added. On the export prospects of the BrahMos, Pillai said the missile is a globally competitive product and many countries have expressed their interest for the product. The Indo-Russian joint venture was setup with an investment of $300 million with 50.5 % funding coming from India and 49.5 % from Russia. “We have so far made a business of $4 billion and expect to make about $10 billion,” Pillai said.