India’s PJ-10 BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile will have superior power compared to today after undergoing an upgrade.
The PJ-10 BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile is a cooperation product between Russia and India, this weapon is based on the P-800 Oniks prototype, it is similar to the original product from appearance to appearance. basic tactical features.
However, to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Missile Technology Control Treaty (MTCR), the range of BrahMos has been reduced to only 290 km compared to over 600 km as in the domestic Russian variant.
Despite this, Indian defense officials have always wanted to own a domestic version of BrahMos with the same power as Oniks, their tireless efforts have finally paid off.
At the end of December 2016, Russia and India agreed on a plan to extend the range of BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles to 600 km. The above agreement is considered full of surprises, and it is clearly a great favor of Moscow with New Delhi.
Experts say that, after completing the upgrade process, BrahMos will have combat capabilities not inferior to Oniks serving in the Russian Navy, able to deploy from a much longer distance than the present. , making the opponent extremely difficult to defend.
According to Alexander Maksichev, co-CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, an upgraded version of the BrahMos missile with a range of 400 km has been successfully tested and the next target will be 500 km.
To reach this limit, the manufacturer needs to improve the rocket’s speed from the current Mach 2.8 to Mach 4.5, maybe they will have to design a fuel compartment that makes the size of the projectile larger. significantly more.
It was thought that the above figure had temporarily satisfied India, but surprisingly, India also have the ambition to build a version of the BrahMos-ER tank that deploys from the air and will reach extremely long distances of 900 km.
The principle to create BrahMos-ER is similar to the fact that Russia put the 9M723 missile of the Iskander-M complex on the MiG-31K fighter with the designation Kh-47M2 Kinzhal.
When deployed from the altitude and initial velocity of large aircraft, the 9M723 projectile will reach a speed of Mach 10 and a range of 2,000 km (compared to Mach 7 and 500 km when launched from the ground).
According to estimates of military experts, if deployed from the Su-30MKI fighter at an altitude of 14,000 m, the BrahMos-A air-launched missile version only needs a slight modification to reach the range 600 km, but to reach the 900 km mark will not be easy.
Russian and Indian experts will certainly have to redesign the launch mechanism, engine as well as the warhead that the BrahMos-ER missile carries, so that it is more likely to become a completely different weapon from The usual BrahMos.
The immediate difficulty is obviously still great, but it is also worth the investment, because if the BrahMos-ER missile is in hand, the Indian Air Force and Navy will have superior combat capabilities compared to today.
In addition, BrahMos-ER missiles can also bring this South Asian country large-value arms export contracts, if they agree to keep the range or reduce it only a little bit compared to the original version. inland.