A Boost to BrahMos

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi not missing any opportunity to stress on the need for India to position itself as a major exporter of high tech combat equipment from being the largest importer of defence hardware, there is now a growing realization in the country over the importance of creating a vibrant military industrial complex capable of not only fully well meeting the requirements of the Indian armed forces but also facilitating the export of “Made in India” arms and fighting platforms. But then realizing this objective is easier said than done. For the country would need to overcome the six decades long  spell of “missed opportunities and lost chances” in so far as laying the ground work for defence self reliance is concerned. Of course, the road ahead of India’s defence self reliance is strewn with complex challenges and stiff obstacles.

Going beyond chanting the mantra of defence self reliance, the Modi Government has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the cause of the indigenization of defence production through a slew of pro active measures and a matching ground level action for producing aircraft, helicopters, submarines and a range of fighting platforms under “Make in India” category. At the end of the day, the Modi Government is keen that Indian industry cutting across the private-public sector jurisdictional differences should take the lead in developing state of the art fighting hardware within the country. Of course, to begin with the, Indian defence industry would need to acquire latest generation cutting-edge technologies that are critical to the production of advanced fighting equipment through joint venture deals with global defence and aerospace companies.

Against this backdrop, the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has hinted at its readiness to export a variety of homegrown weapons systems including a range of missiles to the friendly countries if the Indian Government clears the deck for such an eventuality through appropriate policy measures. And during the recent visit to India, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had expressed the  keenness of his country to acquire  the naval variant of the Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile BrahMos developed by the New Delhi headquartered BrahMos Aerospace which is a joint venture between DRDO and NPO Mashinostroyenia of Russia. In the context of its dispute with China over the resources of South China Sea, Vietnam is keen to deploy BrahMos in its warships. But then the sale of BrahMos to Vietnam could take place only after New Delhi clears the obstacles in the way of its export. Certainly, Modi Government is not worried over the possible Chinese response and reaction to the sale of BrahMos to Vietnam.

On another front, in major boost to BrahMos Aerospace, Russia is known to be working towards ensuring the induction of the missiles into its defence formations. For the current regulation prevents Russia from using weapons systems of foreign origin. For quite some time now, with a view to explore the export opportunities, BrahMos Aerospace has been showcasing the missile in international defence and aerospace expos held in various parts of the world. In fact, Dr.A.Sivathanu Pillai, the former head of BrahMos Aerospace had made it very clear that the export of the missile was on the agenda of BrahMos Aerospace. But he had driven home the point that it was subject to an agreement between India and Russia. Meanwhile three leading submarine builders, Amur (Russia), HDW (Germany) and Navantia (Spain), have approached BrahMos Aerospace for installing the missile on the Project 751 submarines in the event of their bagging the contract .They have all assured that it would not be a problem to deploy BrahMos in their submarines without affecting the performance of the missile.

In a development of significance, Sudhir Kumar Mishra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BrahMos Aerospace has revealed that both India and Russia have agreed on the proposal to export the missile to a list of mutually agreed countries for defensive purposes. Mishra also pointed out to negative list to which export would not be allowed. In a statement to a leading news agency, Mishra said, “If any country approaches us, we will look into it on a case by case basis. BrahMos Aerospace has the production capacity, gameplan and skilled labour to supply. I would like to state that we are ready and waiting. It is for the Government of India to decide”.

Meanwhile, BrahMos Aerospace is busy working on realizing the air launched version of the missile which was originally developed for use by naval forces. A modified variant of the Russian origin Su-30MKI combat aircraft would be used as a platform for the qualification trials of the air launched BrahMos which will weigh less than the land attack and naval variants of the missile.”We are concentrating all energies on air launched variant to deliver it on schedule,” observed Mishra. Everything going as planned, the air launched BrahMos would be ready for deployment in certain categories of fighter planes of the Indian Air Force (IAF) during 2015-16 time-frame.

An advanced land attack variant of BrahMos capable of accomplishing a steep supersonic dive across the mountain ranges to identify and hit targets in a clutter is now going through trials. In July this year, this variant of BrahMos was successfully test fired from the Interim Test Range (ITR) on Indian eastern coast. This versatile missile system with a highly precise target hitting capability features a homegrown airframe and could operate based on GPS satellite data to identify, hit and destroy a hidden target in a steep dive supersonic attack.

According to BrahMos Aerospace, this missile is well equipped to achieve a high level of accuracy with multiple navigation satellite systems integrated with advanced software without having homing devices to enhance its precision strike capability. BrahMos Aerospace is also planning to take up the development of a near vertical and surround capability BrahMos system for use in the mountainous regions. By all means the decision to deploy BrahMos in India’s strategic north eastern sector which shares borders with China makes an immense strategic sense. In particular, it could boost the morale and fighting spirit of the elite mountain strike corps to counter China’s aggressive “military posturing” along and across the actual line of control.

BrahMos Aerospace has now unveiled a plan for developing a miniature, light weight version of the missile powered by a smaller sized ramjet engine. Like its predecessor, this missile system will be configured for deployment on a variety of platforms based on the ground, air, sea and undersea. It is planned to sign an agreement for the development of BrahMos-M during the December 2014 visit to New Delhi of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We are hoping to sing a tripartite agreement between DRDO NPO Mashinostroyenia and BrahMos Aerospace during the planned visit of the Russian President in December”, said Mishra. He also revealed that BrahMos Aerospace is currently looking at the user requirements to finalize the configuration of BrahMos-M.

For IAF, a miniature version of BrahMos implies a Beyond the Visual Range (BVR) missile compatible with future aerial combat platforms including the Indo Russian Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and smaller combat plane like Mig-29K of the Indian navy. Interestingly, Pillai had stated that miniature BrahMos would be developed by reducing the size of the booster and engine .With a lift off weight of 1,500-kg, BrahMos-M would have a speed of Mach 3.5 and carry a warhead weighing 200-300 kg to a range of 290-km.The range of the missile designed to carry a conventional warhead has deliberately been kept below 300-km with a view to facilitate its export without attracting strictures from Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

Meanwhile, the indigenous content of BrahMos missile which is now 35% is planned to be enhanced in a steady manner. For instance, the solid state booster of the missile has been indigenized along with the airframe. It should be said to the credit of BrahMos Aerospace that it has succeeded in putting in place an Indian missile industrial complex supported by both the private and public sector entities that continue to robustly support the missile development programme through the timely availability of high quality hardware and services.

The author is a freelance writer on defence and aerospace subjects. Views expressed are personal.