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Three services to have BrahMos missiles

Arunkumar Bhatt

The Navy has started inducting the missile, the Army and the Air Force to follow suit

MUMBAI: While the Navy has started inducting multi-role, supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos, in a big way, the Army and the Air Force are poised to follow suit to be able to `destabilise' critical targets with pinpoint accuracy.

"Army is very keen to have the missile and we are working on the `land to land' version of it for the Army," said Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai, chief controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Dr. Pillai is also the managing director of BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture that designed and developed the world's only supersonic cruise missile and is now engaged in its production and marketing. He was here to ceremoniously receive the first airframe section of BrahMos from the Chairman of Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Company, J.N. Godrej. About 20 Indian and seven Russian companies are making critical systems for the missile.

He said that the missile was undergoing critical tests to meet the Army's specific requirements to be able to take on different types of targets. The army version would have features like position updating, terrain-hugging, homing image analysis and higher degree of data processing .

The Army is raising a special BrahMos Regiment of three batteries comprising a mobile launcher, mobile and fixed command centres besides other supporting facilities.

The Air Force has identified Su-30 Mk1 aircraft to be able to deliver air-launched version of the BrahMos.

The air-launched version will be lighter in weight with its reduced booster. Dr. Pillai said that it would have the advantage of the speed of the platform itself. It would have fins for stability and a simplified nose.

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Three services to have BrahMos missiles

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