BrahMos : India Ready To Export
India is all set to begin the export of ground systems for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines.
- It is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, sea, and air.
- It has been developed by Brahmos Aerospace, a joint venture of India and Russia.
- It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia).
- It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage, which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated.
- The liquid ramjet, or second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in the cruise phase.
- It is one of the fastest cruise missiles currently operationally deployed, with a speed of Mach 2.8, which is nearly three times more than the speed of sound.
- It has a launch weight of 2,200-3,000 kg.
- The extended-range variant of the missile can strike land and sea targets at a maximum range of 400 to 500 kilometers with supersonic speed all throughout the flight.
- It operates on the “Fire and Forgets” principle, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
- Its cruising altitude could be up to 15 km, and its terminal altitude is as low as 10 meters.
- It carries a conventional warhead weighing 200 to 300 kg.
- It is equipped with stealth technology designed to make it less visible to radar and other detection methods.
- It has an inertial navigation system (INS) for use against ship targets, and an INS/Global Positioning System for use against land targets.
