Operation Sindoor: From HAMMER to BrahMos, the precision guided long range weapons in Indian military’s arsenal

During Wednesday’s official briefing, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, a helicopter pilot with the IAF, said niche-technology weapons with carefully selected warheads were used to avoid collateral damage.

Over the past several years, the Indian military has built up a formidable arsenal of new-age weapons that includes a range of precision-guided long-range weapons and drones, including loitering munitions. Among them:

HAMMER: The Highly Agile and Manoeuvrable Munition Extended Range (HAMMER) air-to-ground precision-guided weapon system for the Rafale fighter aircraft has a range of up to 70 km, and can also be fitted to bombs and various guided systems.

Built by the French aerospace, defence, and security corporation Safran, the HAMMER weapon system is highly versatile, and can be used for precision strikes against a range of targets in medium-range tactical operations.

According to the Safran Group, the system is autonomous and insensitive to jamming, and can be launched from a low altitude over rough terrain.

India has bought several of these weapon systems over the last few years.

SCALP: This is an air-launched cruise missile with stealth features, designed for long-range deep strikes. SCALP-EG (Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée — Emploi Général), known as Storm Shadow in Britain, can be operated at night and in all weather conditions.

The missile, manufactured by the European multinational MBDA, has a range of 450 km, and is difficult to detect due to its low-flying capability when fired from an aircraft.

Its advanced and highly accurate navigation system, which uses Inertial Navigation System (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and terrain referencing, can penetrate bunkers and ammunition stores.

METEOR: The Meteor is a new-generation Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) system which is effective in dense electronic-warfare environments.

According to its manufacturer MBDA, the missile’s solid-fuel ‘ramjet’ motor provides it with thrust all the way to the target intercept, and thus the largest ‘No Escape Zone’ of any air-to-air missile system.

BRAHMOS: These supersonic cruise missiles, which have been operationalised in all three defence services, are built by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya.

BrahMos missiles operate at close to Mach 3 speed in the cruise phase, which ensures reduced flight time, lower dispersion of targets, and quicker engagement time and non-interception.

The missile operates on a ‘Fire and Forget Principle’, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target. As per its website, cruising altitude could be up to 15 km and terminal altitude as low as 10 metres. The missile carries a conventional warhead weighing 200-300 kg.

The range of some BrahMos missiles for land and ship attacks have been nearly doubled in recent years.

LOITERING MUNITIONS: They are used for surveillance and identification of targets, and can carry out precision strikes, autonomously or otherwise. The Armed Forces in the last few years have been procuring a range of drones, including loitering munitions.