Submarine Launched BrahMos In Final Stages

The work on the launch of a submarine variant of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile is almost in the final stages. BrahMos Aerospace CEO and MD Dr A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters that the job is in the final stages and the missile will soon be tested. Land and sea based variants of the BrahMos missile have already been tested successfully several times and are in active service with the Indian Army and the Indian Navy. Flight tests of the Air Force variant of the missile will complete before the end of 2012. The Brahmos Missile can fly at 2.8 times the speed of sound is capable of carrying conventional warheads of up to 300 kg for a range of 290 km. BrahMos Aerospace is already working on the hypersonic variant 'Brahmos-2' cruise missile which will be ready for launch in the next five years. The range of Brahmos-2 has been regulated to 290 km as Russia is a signatory of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) which does not allow it to help other countries to develop missiles with ranges above 300 kilometres. With a speed of Mach 7 it will have a speed double the speed of the current Brahmos-1, and it has accordingly been branded as the fastest hypersonic missile in the world. BrahMos Aerospace was started as an Indo-Russian joint venture with an initial investment of $300 million. It is now doing business with India and Russia worth five billion dollars. The missile is expected to reach a total order worth of US $13 billion. The company is unable to consider any kind of exports of the supersonic cruise missile to friendly countries since the Indian order alone is too big for the current production capacity to satisfy demands.