The maximum speed of the BrahMos NG missile will be 3.5 mach

The 'Make in India' BrahMos NG will add immense firepower to the 'Make in India' Tejas aircraft, making the duo a formidable combination for light combat warfare

At the Aero India 2019, BrahMos Aerospace plans to display a model of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas with two next-generation BrahMos missiles under its wings! Sources told Financial Express Online that the new BrahMos NG (or the next-generation BrahMos) which is being developed by BrahMos Aerospace will have the same range as the original supersonic cruise missile, that is around 300 kilometres. The maximum speed of the BrahMos NG missile will be 3.5 mach. BrahMos NG is a lighter version of the world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile and according to BrahMos Aerospace can be used from various platforms. The ‘Make in India’ BrahMos NG will add immense firepower to the ‘Make in India’ Tejas aircraft, making the duo a formidable combination for light combat warfare. Some of the big advantages of BrahMos NG on the Tejas will be; multi-target capability and wider scope of deployment.

India is also eyeing immense export potential for this ‘Make in India’ combination – Tejas and BrahMos NG. Both LCA Tejas and the BrahMos cruise missile have generated export interest in the last few years and with the newer version of BrahMos – BrahMos NG being developed, defence officials are hopeful that a big market for export of indigenous ‘Make in India’ weapons will open up for the country with this integration.

BrahMos Aerospace, CEO and Managing Director, Sudhir Mishra has been quoted in the past as saying that the lighter BrahMos NG missiles will be tested from submarines, ships and aircraft. The BrahMos missile, jointly developed by India and Russia, has over the years increasingly got more ‘Make in India’ indigenous components, one of the most recent being the successful test with an indigenous seeker. The learning from making a missile as lethal as BrahMos are unparalleled and would feed into the defence industry’s missile making ecosystem over the coming years.

Meanwhile, BrahMos has already been successfully integrated and test-fired from the Sukhoi-30 MKI of the Indian Air Force (IAF). According to Mishra, this is the first time in the world that a missile as heavy as the BrahMos has been fitted on the frontline fighter jet of a nation. While originally developed with a range of 300 kilometres, BrahMos has recently been upgraded to a range of 450 kilometres. An 800 kilometres BrahMos missile is also under development, a fact that will give India a huge boost in defence preparedness against not only Pakistan, but also China.