Billed as the first ever operational supersonic cruise missile, the heavyweight, seaskimming PJ-10 BrahMos is set to be developed into a more versatile and lethal version. Alexander Mladenov reports
Known as the most successful ever Russo-Indian defence jointventure defence, BrahMos Aerospace is up and running to supply supersonic cruise missiles to the three major Indian military branches and is also set to begin the first export deliveries of its high-tech weapons system. At the same time, the joint venture company intends to launch the development of two newgeneration air-launched missiles derived from the baseline BrahMos design in the foreseeable future .
The BrahMos was developed by using the baseline design of the Russianmade P-800 Onyx (NATO name SS-N- 26 Strobile) missile, offered for export under the new name Yakhont. This novel trisonic ship – or land-launched cruise missile was developed and tested in the late 1980s and the early 1990s by Russian company NPO Mashinostroenia, now a subsidiary of Tactical Missiles Corporation, the Russian holding company controlling most of the design bureaus and production plants involved in the production of air- and sea-launched weaponry. Its fielding in…
