Russian-Indian Brahmos JV Buys Plant To Double Missile Production

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian-Indian Brahmos JV Buys Plant To Double Missile Production

The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos has bought a manufacturing plant in south India to double production of its supersonic cruise missiles, a company spokesman said on Monday.

The joint venture has bought a plant from state company Kerala Hightech Industries Ltd, the purchase that would allow it to bring production to 50 BrahMos missiles a year.

Praveen Pathak said the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which represents the Indian side in the BrahMos venture, will invest around $25 million in the plant within a year or two, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will invest another $6 million.

"At the plant in [the state of] Kerala, we will assemble BrahMos missiles, as well as make components for Astra rockets produced by ISRO," Pathak said.

Earlier reports said the contract on the transfer of the plant's ownership to BrahMos will be signed January 1, 2008.

Established in 1998, BrahMos Aerospace designs, produces and markets supersonic missiles, whose sea-based and land-based versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy.

The Brahmos missile has a range of 180 miles and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds. It can hit ground targets flying at an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and at a speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the U.S.-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

Experts estimate that India might purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its Armed Forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to third countries during the same period.

Work is currently underway to create aircraft- and submarine-based BrahMos missiles.

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia and India perfect BrahMos

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov arrives in India on February 12 for the opening ceremony of the Year of Russia in India.

A joint project, years in the making, the Year of Russia in India will inject further momentum into military-technical cooperation between the two countries, an area that is already leading Russian-Indian business relations.

Military cooperation is based on the latest achievements in the defense industry. A case in point is the BrahMos-2, a new tactical cruise missile named after India's Brahmaputra River and Russia's Moskva River. In the coming five years the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace, founded in 1998, will produce the missile for India's Defense Ministry.

At five times the speed of sound, the BrahMos-2 is fast enough to overcome any air defense system. More than 20 Russian plants and design bureaus, including the leading Russian missile producers Strela and Mashinostroyeniye research and production association, will be involved in the production of the new weapon.

The main feature of this missile is its versatility: it can be based on vehicles, ships, submarines and aircraft. In other words, the BrahMos missile can be supplied to every branch of the armed forces.

On June 21 of last year India's Ground Forces received their first BrahMos-1 missile, mounted on a Tatra truck chassis. A series of successful test launches had already confirmed the high combat qualities and effectiveness of the new weapon.

The Indian Defense Ministry announced on January 1 that the missile would be soon supplied to the Air Force for Russian-built multi-role Su-30MKI fighters. The Indian Navy received the BrahMos-1 in 2006.

The BrahMos-1 has a range of 290 kilometers, a cruise speed of 920 meters per second, and carries an up to 300-kilogram warhead.

The BrahMos is the descendent of a well-known Russian predecessor, the Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile developed by the Mashinostryeniye research and production association in the early 1980s. It was designed to fight against surface naval groups and single ships in conditions of strong enemy opposition and radio-electronic warfare.

Unlike previous Russian anti-ship missiles, which had a relatively narrow carrier specialization, the Yakhont was designed for launch from submarines, surface vessels, aircraft and shore batteries. In its versatility the missile was designed to surpass the American Harpoon, at that time the best foreign anti-ship missile.

The BrahMos missile has inherited all the best characteristics of its Russian predecessor: over the horizon (OTH) range, self-sustainability (fire-and-forget principle), a set of flexible ('low', 'high-low') trajectories, supersonic velocity at all stages of flight, full commonality for various carriers, and the ability to avoid detection by radar.