Abu Dhabi: India is set to launch its supersonic airborne cruise missile Brahmos in the coming months, according to a top executive of BrahMos Aerospace that manufactures the missile.
The 2.5 metric tonne air-to-ground missile will be fired from a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft that has already undergone modifications to accommodate the new weapon, said Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russia joint venture company based in New Delhi.
The missile, weighing about three tonnes, has a target range of 294 kilometres, he said. It flies at three times the speed of sound, making it the world’s fastest cruise missile.
“Till now we had missiles that could be launched from ship to ship, ship to land, land to land, land to ship and now for the first time we will have Brahmos missile that could be launched from air to ship and air to land,” said Mishra speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of International Defence Exhibition (Idex 2017) in Abu Dhabi.
Interested parties
The company hopes to sign up with potential customers in the region after the test launch.
“This is the world’s fastest cruise missile and there are a lot of interested parties in the world. We are talking to various potential customers in the Middle East, East Asia and South America.”
When asked whether the UAE has shown interest in buying the missile, he said it was too early to name the countries.
Defence ties between UAE and India have been growing following the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UAE in 2015 and the subsequent visits of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in February 2016 and in January this year.
The two countries signed an agreement to cooperate in the defence industry during the visit of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince to India earlier this year.
