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BrahMos to be used in plains

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: The Brahmos supersonic missile, inducted by the Army on Thursday, will primarily be deployed against “value targets” near the India-Pakistan border, in the plains stretching from Jammu region to Rajasthan, said sources in the Army here. Rajasthan had been the site of over a dozen tests of the missile.

“The missile will be used by us largely over flat terrain and, therefore, the location of the initial batteries to begin with will be in locations from where it can be moved to battle positions quickly,” the sources said, adding the induction would be a gradual process.

In due course, the Brahmos will be available to all the three Services. Originally configured as an anti-ship missile, the weapon had been inducted on naval ships.

Attempts were on in Russia to fit a modified version on a Sukhoi aircraft, although it may take time to fructify owing to differences between Russia and India on the pricing of defence products.

However, the expectations of exporting the missile to Russia and third-world countries may not fructify in the near future.

Russia needs to change a law to allow induction of the missile into its armed forces and the indications are that this would not happen due to the preoccupation with parliamentary and presidential elections.

On the other hand, despite missile familiarisation tours by top BrahMos officials to several countries, there is opposition from within towards efforts to export the missile on moral grounds.

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