Story of BrahMos: the ‘fire and forget’, stealthy cruise missile India likely used against Pakistan

On Sunday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh virtually inaugurated a BrahMos Integration and Testing Facility Centre in Lucknow, saying the missile was a confluence of the top defence technologies of India and Russia. He hailed the missile as “not just one of the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missiles, but a message of the strength of the Indian Armed Forces, a message of deterrence to adversaries, and a message of the nation’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding its borders.”

BrahMos is considered an extremely versatile ‘fire and forget’ type missile, which has proved its capabilities across its land-based, ship-based, air-launched and submarine-based versions. Here is its story.

How and why was the BrahMos developed?

From the 1980s, India’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as its central figure, began developing the Agni series of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. The programme also delivered several other versatile missiles, including the surface-to-air missile Akash, surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile Prithvi and anti-tank guided missile Nag.

In the 1990s, India’s policy makers felt the need for equipping the armed forces with cruise missiles – a category of guided missiles that traverse the majority of their flight path at almost constant speed to deliver warheads with high precision.

They differ from ballistic missiles, which take a parabolic ballistic trajectory to deliver warheads over long distances. The need for cruise missiles was further underlined by their successful use during the 1991 Gulf War.

After initial talks with Russia, an Inter-Governmental Agreement was signed in Moscow in February 1998 by Dr Kalam, who then headed the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and N V Mikhailov, Russia’s Deputy Defence Minister.

The agreement led to the formation of BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM). BrahMos is an amalgamation of the names of the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. The entity was set up with a mandate to design, develop, and manufacture a supersonic, high-precision cruise missile and its variants.

India holds a 50.5 per cent share and Russia the other 49.5 per cent share in the joint venture. The first successful test of the missile was conducted on June 12, 2001, from the specially designed land-based launcher at the Integrated Test Range, off the Chandipur coast of Odisha.

What is the anatomy of a BrahMos missile?

BrahMos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine.

Its first stage brings the missile to a supersonic speed, greater than the speed of sound, and it then gets separated. The second stage of the liquid ramjet then fires and thrusts the missile to three times the speed of sound in its cruise phase. A liquid ramjet is an air-breathing jet engine that uses liquid fuel, which is injected into the high-speed airstream and ignited to produce thrust.

In general, ‘fire and forget’ missiles are guided weapons that require no further input or control after being launched. What brings the added element of stealth to BrahMos is its extremely low radar cross-section (RCS) because of its compact design and use of special materials. It can achieve a cruising altitude of 15 kilometres and a terminal altitude as low as 10 metres to hit any target.

Cruise missiles, like the BrahMos, come under the category known as the “stand-off range weapons”, which are fired from a range sufficient to allow the attacker to evade defensive fire from the adversary. These weapons are in the arsenal of most major militaries in the world.

The versions of the BrahMos that are currently being tested at an extended range can hit targets at upto 350 kilometres, as compared to its original range of 290 kilometres. Even higher ranges of upto 800 kilometres, and hypersonic speed or five times the speed of sound, are said to be on the cards. Compared to subsonic cruise missiles, the BrahMos has three times the speed, 2.5 times the flight range and a higher seeker range, leading to higher accuracy and nine times more kinetic energy.

The many variants of BrahMos

Following the first successful launch at the Chandipur test range, the BrahMos was inducted into the Navy in 2005, into the Indian Army in 2007 and the first successful flight with IAF’s Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter in 2017. While land, air, sea and submarine are broader classifications of the missile, numerous versions with extended ranges and evolving sensing capabilities have been tested and deployed over the last 24 years.

1. Ship-based variant: The naval version can be fired vertically or inclined, and from both moving and static naval platforms. It has been successful time and again in sea-to-sea and sea-to-land modes.

From ships, the BrahMos can be launched as a single unit or in a salvo of upto eight, separated by two-and-a-half-second-long intervals. These salvos can hit and destroy a group of frigates having modern missile defence systems. BrahMos is a ‘prime strike weapon’ for such targets and significantly increases the capability of engaging naval surface targets at long ranges.

The Indian Navy began inducting BrahMos on its frontline warships from 2005, and it can hit sea-based targets beyond the radar horizon. Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Rajput was the first ship to deploy a BrahMos and it has since been deployed on other warships.

2. The land-based system: The land-based BrahMos Complex has four to six mobile autonomous launchers. Each launcher has three missiles on board that can be fired almost simultaneously on three different targets and in different configurations. Multiple units of BrahMos systems have been deployed along India’s land borders.

The land attack version of the BrahMos, with a capability of cruising at 2.8 Mach speed. Following upgrades, it can hit targets at a range of upto 400 kilometres with precision. The development of advanced versions of a range above 1,000 kilometres and speed upto 5 Mach is said to be in store.

The ground systems of BrahMos come with an air-conditioned cabin with Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) protection. The land attack version of the BrahMos was operationalised in the Indian Army in 2007.

The missiles have been deployed in three different configurations – Block I with precision hitting capability, Block II with supersonic deep-dive and target discrimination capability, and Block III with mountain warfare capability.

3. The air-launched version: The BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) is the heaviest missile to arm India’s frontline fighter jet, the Sukhoi-30 MKI. In November 2017, BrahMos was successfully flight-tested for the first time from the IAF frontline fighter aircraft against a sea-based target in the Bay of Bengal and has since been successfully tested multiple times.

In tests conducted in 2019, BrahMos ALCM validated its land attack and anti-ship capability from large, stand-off ranges by day or night and in all weather conditions.

BrahMos-equipped Sukhoi-30s, which have a range of 1,500 kilometres at a stretch without mid-air refuelling, are considered a crucial deterrence for the adversaries both along land borders and in the strategically important Indian Ocean Region.

4. The submarine-launched version: This version can be launched from around 50 meters below the surface of the water. The canister-stored missile is launched vertically from the pressure hull of a submarine and uses different settings for underwater and out-of-the-water flights. This version was first successfully tested in March 2013 from a submerged platform off the coast of Visakhapatnam.

5. The futuristic BrahMos-NG: Development is underway for a futuristic version of the BrahMos, known as the BrahMos-NG (Next Generation), primarily for air and naval applications. This version will have reduced dimensions and weight, next generation stealth features, greater effectiveness against Electronic counter-countermeasure (ECCM), higher versatility for underwater combat and launch capability from a torpedo tube.