Defensive boost as BrahMos all set to pick up speed to turn as a hypersonic weapon

NewsBharati    30-Mar-2019
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Langkawi, March 30: Boosting the defensive missile, BrahMos world’s fastest cruise missile will get a maximum speed of Mach 5 during its upgrade to become a hypersonic weapon. This new move of upgrading the defensive missile was stated by the Russian Head of the BrahMos Aerospace Russia-India Joint Venture Alexander Maksichev at the LIMA 2019 ARMS show in Malaysia on Thursday.

"We hope that in the coming years we will reach the boundary, which some scientists call the hypersound. Perhaps, somewhere in the area of Mach 4.5-5," Maksichev said.


The company is constantly dealing with the issues of increasing the speed of the BrahMos missile and building up its combat capabilities, he noted. The current BrahMos modification has a speed of Mach 2.8-3 which is being upgraded to Mach 5.0. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service, with the air and submarine-launched versions currently in the testing phase.

The BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world. It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace. It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile and other similar sea-skimming Russian cruise missile technology.

An air-launched variant of BrahMos appeared in 2012. A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with a speed of Mach 7-8 to boost aerial fast strike capability. It is expected to be ready for testing by 2020.

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