BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, developed jointly by Russia and India. This missile is named after two rivers of India and Russia. This missile is capable of hitting a target as far as 290 kilometers. This missile is designed in a way that it can be launched from a fighter jet, submarines, surface ships, and ground-based transport erector launchers (TELs).
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Different variants of this missile are currently in service with the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, and Indian Navy. This missile has a strike range of 290 kilometers and a speed of 3 Mach. BrahMos cruise missile is equipped with stealth technology to avoid enemy radars and uses Inertial Guidance System (INS) to target enemy surface ships. In addition, this missile uses GPS/INS to target enemy ground-based targets.
The BrahMos cruise missile is powered by a solid propellant boost motor with a liquid-fueled ramjet sustainer motor. BrahMos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as it’s the first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then separated. Liquid-fueled ramjet or second stage then takes it closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase.
This missile is based on the Russian P800 Onyx/Yakhont cruise missile. The current versions have a range of about 500 km but the export variant of the missile has a range of 290 km in order to keep it under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) restrictions of 300 km. Recently, the Philippines also ordered two batteries of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile (Naval Variant) for $374 million. As per the Philippine defense secretary, “the Coastal Defense Regiment of the Philippine Marines will be the primary employer of this modern strategic defense capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
