BrahMos, sounds Indian? Well it is and half Russian. The name derives from the names of two rivers,the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. BrahMos is a joint venture between Republic of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. This company was established in India on Feb 12,1998.
The company is to design,develop,produce and market the BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile. It is the world’s fastest cruise missile in operation. The company was with an authorized capital of $250 million with 50.5% from India and 49.5% from Russia.
The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service,the air and submarine-launched versions are currently in the testing phase. BrahMos has the capability of attacking surface targets by flying as low as 10 meters in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8 and has a maximum range of 290 km,where Mach or M=v/s,v=velocity of source relative to medium and s = speed of sound in medium.
Also BrahMos 2 is currently under development,estimated to have the same range but with almost double the speed of the current BrahMos missile i.e speed of Mach 7. This will be the fastest hypersonic missile in the world. Since late 2004,the missile has undergone several tests from variety of platforms including land based test to submarine based tests.
By April 2013, BrahMos has been inducted in eight warships of the Indian Navy. The following ship classes of the Navy are equipped with BrahMos
-Rajput -class destroyers
-Talwar-class frigate
-Shivalik-class frigate
-Kolkata-class destroyers
The BrahMos block 1 was inducted into the Army in several regiments. Several countries including Vietnam,South Africa,Egypt,Oman,Brunei have expressed interest in the missile,with having serious negotiations with Chile,Brazil,South Africa and Indonesia regarding the purchase of the missile.
The mission of BrahMos is ‘Thrive to attain greater heights and make ‘Brand BrahMos a synonym of achievement,innovation an success in the international arena of missile and aerospace,to be market leader with a product that dictates quality,commitment and most cost effective user friendly system from the armed forces and harnessing strategic alliance with friendly countries of the joint venture partners,through export of BRAHMOS.
– Pranchal Joshi
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