BrahMos Missile: The Dragon is Little Nervous

In August 2016, the Government of India decided to deploy the 4th regiment of BrahMos Missile in Arunachal Pradesh.  The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the request of raising a new regiment of an advanced version of BrahMos missiles to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs. 4300 crore. The regiment will be equipped with five autonomous missile launchers with a command post. It would include 100 BrahMos missiles.

This deployment has caused a lot of anxiety and nervousness in China. A few days after the news of the BrahMos deployment in Arunachal Pradesh came out, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) declared it a threat to China and the boundary dispute. They went on to say that “missile with updated capabilities for stealth and mountain warfare could threaten Yunnan and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) provinces, located across the border from Arunachal Pradesh.”

In an article in the mouthpiece of China’s armed forces, military naval engineer Cheng Yuyi declared India’s move as “beyond India’s `normal need for self-defence`. Playing tricks, they are bound to suffer the consequences.” Though he did acknowledge in the article that the deployment could not pose a great threat as it has a limited range of 290 KM and could not hit any target in mainland China.

But then why is China making so much of fuss over this small step? After all, the range of the missile is just 290 KM and it can carry a warhead of just 200/300 KG.

Is the Dragon nervous? A brief introduction of the missile will help us understand why.

BrahMos is a state of the art, highly advanced, supersonic one-of-its-kind missile in the world. This short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile was developed under a joint project of India & Russia that started in the late 1990s.

During the cold war, instead of a conventional subsonic cruise missile, the USSR developed an unconventional supersonic cruise missile that could evade American aircraft carriers’ defensive setup and destroy it. It is important to note here that the USSR never undertook the development of aircraft carriers seriously. (Towards the end of cold war, four Kiev Class carriers were built – one of which was Admiral Gorshkov, which is now in service with the Indian Navy.) To tackle American threat from aircraft carriers, the USSR successfully developed supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, that could evade American carriers’ missile defence systems and destroy it.

The aim of the BrahMos project was to develop an Indian version of P-800 Oniks anti-ship missile. (initially BrahMos was developed as an anti-ship missile for the Navy but later its success and abilities moved Indian Armed Forces to push `BrahMos Aerospace` to develop a land-based and air-launched versions). In a theoretical study, 16 ripple fired BrahMos missiles can take out the US Navy’s most advanced Arleigh Burke class destroyer.

Unlike other cruise missiles like Tomahawk (of the USA) & Babar (of Pakistan) that fly at a sub-sonic speed of 500-600 KMPH, BrahMos can touch an astonishing maximum speed of Mach 2.8 (roughly 3400 KMPH). Though its range is limited, just 290 KM, and it can carry a light warhead of just 200-300Kg,  its ability to maintain supersonic speeds while skimming at low altitude makes it very difficult to detect and intercept. During the last leg of its flight, just before hitting its target, the BrahMos performs an `S-manoeuvre’ to evade any anti-missile defence system.

The BrahMos’ kinetic energy gives it an edge in terms of stealth, hit probability and better target penetration characteristics, making it a deadly weapon. One can only imagine the impact a target would have when a 3 ton 28 feet long missile carrying a 300 Kg semi-armour-piercing warhead flying at speed of 3000 Kmph hits it with pinpoint accuracy (CEP of 5 meters) – the missile will most likely tear the ship apart.

BrahMos was first tested in June 2001 and later deployed successfully on Rajput class destroyers. In 2004, the land attack version from mobile launchers was tested for the Army and it completed the testing in 2009 to complete satisfaction of the end user. Since then three regiments have been commissioned and deployed. The fourth regiment will have the test version of a missile that was specially designed for mountain warfare. It was first tested in April 2014 in a steep dive-cum-target discrimination mode  that enables the missile to take out selected targets hidden behind a mountain range accurately. This is what could apparently be worrying China.

China knows that India has no territorial designs. India is ensuring that its armed forces have the necessary equipment and infrastructure available to thwart any Chinese aggression. In any short swift war such deadly, accurate and stealth weapons would be of immense value to destroy Chinese command & control centres, firepower centres, Radar and Air Defence sites etc. This could change the course of conflict. Though China is acquiring one of the best missile defence systems S400 from Russia but BrahMos’ very small RCS (Radar cross section), supersonic speed coupled with S-manoeuvre and low flying altitude makes it extremely difficult to track and intercept. The only possible anti-missile system that can stop BrahMos (single or ripple fired) effectively is Barak-8.

An air-launched version of the BrahMos (named BrahMos-A) is also being developed. BrahMos-A will be 500Kg lighter than its Army and Naval versions. It will weigh 2.5 ton and will carry a warhead of 300 Kg. The first demonstration flight of Su-30 MKI carrying BrahMos-A was conducted on 25 June 2016. The Su-30 MKI had to undergo structural modification and its undercarriage had to be strengthened. IAF will equip 40 Su-30MKIs with BrahMos and has already deployed Su-30 MKI squadrons near the Chinese border in north-east India. Equipping Su-30 MKI with BrahMos -A will allow IAF to deliver the deadliest punch with a CEP of 5 meters deep inside Tibet and Chinese province-Yunnan.

All frontline warships of Indian Navy are already equipped with one or two 8-cell UVLM for BrahMos block I & II missiles. The Navy has already been doing long patrols and with the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEOMA) with the USA  is likely to gain access to both IAF and Navy to US overseas naval bases.   The LEOMA is aimed at few specific reasons - like joint military exercises, training, port calls, humanitarian missions and other military activities that both sides mutually agree to undertake (and every access request made by one country will be accessed and approved/rejected by other country beforehand. While this agreement does not facilitate easy and unlimited access to each other’s bases, China cannot rule out the possibility where these bases could give necessary logistic support to Indian vessels or fighters to carry out an operation against Chinese mainland. After-all desperate times call for desperate measures.

The present Indian government has demonstrated clarity about India’s objectives in every field and is bold enough to call a spade a spade. Since 2006, half-hearted decisions were taken to equip armed forces to counter Chinese threat but now this process is on the fast track. Earlier we were just looking at the Chinese `String of Pearls` encircling us but now India is turning the table on the Chinese. For the last 50 years, China has been supporting and equipping Pakistani armed forces with various weapon platforms. China also helped Pakistan with strategic weapons and missile development. It provided nuclear weapon designs to Dr. AQ Khan and facilitated missile designs from North Korea (in lieu of nuclear technology, CIA provided photos showing PAF’s C-130 delivering the hardware at a North Korean airbase). Thus China helped Pakistan getting both the weapon and the delivery system. China has been closely working with other countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives to gain port access. That is how the term `String of Pearls` came into existence.

Now this string is getting reversed with India ready to sell BrahMos missile to Vietnam & Philippines, with whom China has a dispute over the South China Sea. The possible sale of BrahMos to these countries has already created ripples in China. As per Chinatopix¹ - `The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has no defence against India's BrahMos supersonic cruise missile -- the fastest anti-ship missile in the world -- and India is intent on selling these world-beating missiles to both Vietnam and the Philippines. The surface-to-air missiles on PLAN warships such as the FL-3000N will be almost useless against a volley of supersonic BrahMos hurtling towards a Chinese warship at Mach 3. The current generation of PLAN ship-borne SAMs can only effectively engage anti-ship missiles travelling at half the speed of BrahMos. `

A future customer of both naval and air force versions of the missile would be Japan and Taiwan. A hypersonic version of BrahMos (flying at 6000Kmph) is already being developed and should be ready in 5-7 years. Keeping BrahMos Aerospace’s track record, the deadline of 5-7 years looks realistic. They have always delivered on time. In a nutshell, the Dragon has real reasons to worry about.

Views expressed by the Author are personal.