Hi Pakistan December 4, 2003
And now the 'BrahMos'
By Eas Bokhari
India has a potent and highly integrated missile programme which caters for the defence Triad besides catering for an extended range ballistic missile ('Agni') for China. Of course 'Agni' can face Pakistan too. The latest entrant in the Indian missile assets is the 'BrahMos' a cruise missile which has been produced with Russian collaboration as a joint venture in India.
It appears that India has a proactive missile programme and India is not jittered whenever a new version of Pakistani missile is launched. As per Rodney W Jones, writing in the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol XXV Number 5 Summer 2002, Russia and India have jointly developed a missile, the PJ-10 a variant of the 'Yakhont' which India plans to market as the 'BrahMos.' This missile is a ramjet powered, supersonic, anti-ship cruise missile of about 300 kilometres (km) range. Its payload has not been indicated by Dr Jones. 'The Hindu' of June 28, 2001 carries the same story under the caption "Russia to Unveil PJ-10 Missile."
A CRS Report Forthe Congress RL 32115 'Missile Proliferation and the strategic Balance in South Asia' of 17 October 2003 provides some more details about the Indo-Russian nexus as far as 'BrahMos' is concerned. The CRS reports says there is a considerable Russian involvement in India's Missile programme. And reportedly more than two-thirds of India's military equipment is from Russia or the former Soviet Union. Some of the analysts believe that India will purchase an additional eight billion US dollars worth of military items from Russia in the decade to come. See 'Independent' - London of 5 December 2002 "Putin Brings Offer of Nuclear-Tipped Arms Deal to India."
It appears that India and Russia are jointly developing the 'BrahMos' anti-ship Cruise Missile (CM). The 'BrahMos' which is not presently assessed to be nuclear-capable has a reported range of 185 miles, a payload of 440 pounds, and a speed of more than 1400 miles per hour. See Neelesh Misra "India Test Fires a Missile That Could Hit Pakistani Cities - Philadelphia Enquirer-13 February 2003.
The 'BrahMos' is significant and a state-of-the-art missile in that it is considered by many analysts to be a missile which travels at supersonic speed (it is about three times faster than the much trumpeted and used current US 'Tomahawk' cruise missile. The Americans had used their cruise missile in both the Iraq wars (Gulf wars) and in Afghanistan with telling effect especially in the case of Gulf wars. The 'BrahMos', according to some specialists has been built and incorporates stealth technology which could, according to some analysts, make the missile virtually impossible to intercept.
It appears that both the countries plan to deploy the 'BrahMos' with their armed forces besides exporting it to Third World countries - possibly to offset US military capabilities.
According to Global Security.org. the two-staged 'BrahMos' which can be fired from air, land and sea could be modified to accommodate a small nuclear warhead, adding yet another operational capability to India's nuclear arsenal. (Information on the BrahMos deployment is from "PJ-10 BrahMos" Global Security.org. available at http://www.globalsecurity/world/india/BrahMos.htm.
"While India and Russia have publicly stated their intentions to deploy the 'BrahMos' to their respective armed forces by the end of 2003, some military officials believe that they are still several years away from deploying the missile."
India has long displayed ambitions to become self-sufficient in all areas of modern science and high technology, including atomic energy, aero space, and electronics. India had started its dedicated missile development programme by late 1970s by adopting imported space launch vehicles (SLVs) and air defence missile technology to surface-to-surface ballistic missiles applications.
India has a variety of R&D programmes for air-to-air, air-to-surface, anti-tank and air defence missiles, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and cruise missiles.
It is to be noted that India has acquired some Russian airborne naval and submarine missile systems and related military technologies including some dual-capable ballistic and cruise missile systems such as the SS-NX-27 (P-900 Alfa) which is hybrid cruise and ballistic missile.
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