 Brahmos-2 Hypersonic Missile Concept displayed at Aero India 2013 IntroductionDuring a visit to India by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to India in 2008, the two countries signed an agreement to develop a hypersonic follow up to the Brahmos missile jointly developed by India and Russia. At a Glance
Finalization of Tech QRsIn September 2009, the two countries finalized the technical QRs for the missile and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Defense Ministry sources announced on October 9. It was agreed to limit the range of the missile to 290 km in order to conform to stipulations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) of which Russia is a signatory. The regime forbids export of any missile with a range in excess of 300 km. It was also decided to keep the physical characteristics of the new missile identical to those of Brahmos to enable the use of the existing Brahmos ground, sea and air to launch infrastructure. Navy, Army and Air Force launchers developed for the Brahmos missile will be compatible with the Brahmos-2. The missiles will be "picked and put" in the old launchers for usage by armed forces in Russia and India. Development of the Brahmos-2 missile comes under the purview of the India-Russia Inter Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) and the India-Russia Long Term Inter-Governmental Agreement on the programme for Military Technical Cooperation. The agreement, initially signed in December 1998 is valid upto 2010. It is likely to be further extended to cover the period 2111-2020. Will be an air launched missile?Speaking to the press at DefExpo 2010 in New Delhi on Tuesday, February 16, BrahMos' Chief Executive Officer A Sivathanu Pillai said the Brahmos-2 will be exclusively an air launched missile and smaller than the Brahmos. "The hypersonic missile, which will be smaller than BrahMos-I, will definitely provide an advantage to the Indian armed forces in future warfare," "It will take some time to mature. But our aim is for it to touch Mach 5 to 7 speeds, making it the fastest cruise missile in the world. Development ProgressPreliminary work has begun on the development of missile capable of flying at a speed between 5 and 7 Mach using a scram jet engine. On June 27, 2012, Brahmos Aerospace CEO Sivathanu Pillai told an engineering technology forum near Moscow that the first fully-functional prototype of the missile will be ready in five years. “We have already carried out a series of lab tests [of the missile] at the speed of 6.5 Mach,” he said. Pillai said that the new missile will be made in three variants – ground-launched, airborne, and sea-launched and will supplied exclusively to India and Russia. [via RIA Novosti] On November 28, 2011, Brahmos chief A Sivathanu Pillai told PTI in Chennai that the missile design had been tested at hypersonic speeds. "Experiments are being done in Hyderabad. We have completed tests up to Mach 6.5," he said, adding that the target was to achieve Mach 7. It is likely Mr. Pillai was referring to wind tunnel tests and or fluid dynamics simulations. Speaking to the press in Chennai on January 30, 2011 Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD of Brahmos Aerospace said, "The basic technology is being developed. It will take around six years to come out with a missile." BrahMos Funds Hypersonic Flight ResearchOn August 18, 2011 during MAKS-2011, BrahMos Aerospace signed a MoU with Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) and NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOM) corporation to establish a centre of excellence for developing technology for high-speed aircraft and missiles. Under the agreement, Brahmos Aerospace will fund collaborative research into hypersonic technologies by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). BrahMos will initially give $1 million grants each to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) for them to work on the project. It will step up the funding contingent to the progress achieved by both institutes who would be closely cooperating on the project. There will be an exchange of scientists and engineers between IISC and MAI and the intellectual property of the research will be the property of Brahmos. The IISC-MAI partnership will develop the airframe, guidance and warhead for the hypersonic Brahmos-2, while Defence Research and Development Laboratry (DRDL) develops its scramjet engine. The MoU was signed by BrahMos CEO A. Sivathanu Pillai, Rector of MAI A.N. Geraschenko and Chief of NPOM Corporation Alexander Leonov. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Pillai said: “It is a remarkable step for BrahMos, NPOM and MAI to come together and work in this field. |
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Missiles > Cruise Missiles >
Brahmos-2 Hypersonic Cruise Missile |