IAF chief calls for building BrahMos missile variant for smaller warplanes
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Wednesday called for development of a smaller version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile for smaller fighter jets such as the MiG-29, Mirage 2000 and the indigenous light combat aircraft, stressing that the weapon can be used very effectively for land attack.
Currently, only IAF’s Sukhoi30MKI fighters are equipped with air-launched version of the BrahMos, a 2.5-tonne missile that flies at nearly three times the speed of sound. The smaller missile, BrahMos-Next Generation, is expected to weigh 1.2 tonnes and be more lethal than the current airlaunched version, officials said. “Achieving this milestone (development of BrahMos-NG missile) will be one of biggest leaps that we can achieve in Atmanirbharta,” Chaudhari said at an event organised to mark silver jubilee of BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russia joint venture.
The air force had initially planned to modify 40 Su-30 fighters to carry the missile, but today the entire Su-30 fleet has been modified to carry the
BrahMos, the officials said. “As the situation unfolded along northern borders (where India has been locked in a border row with China since May 2020) three years ago, we realised that the potent weapon can be used very effectively for land attack.
Today we have BrahMos modified aircraft (Su-30s) in all squadrons across IAF,” Chaudhari said.
Developing BrahMos-NG should be a focus area, he said. “This is an area where we need to focus our energy ... to develop a smaller weapon with same reach and lethality,” he said.
“The existing BrahMos missile was designed almost 25 years ago. The NG variant will use latest design tools, materials... It will significantly boost the IAF’s capabilities,” said former BrahMos Aerospace CEO Sudhir Mishra.