India, Russia working towards hypersonic cruise missile

India and Russia are working jointly to explore possibilities of developing a more advanced weapon system than BrahMos -- probably a Hypersonic Cruise Missile, BrahMos Aerospace CEO and Managing Director A Sivathanu Pillai said on Thursday.

Talking to reporters in Tiruchirapalli, Pillai said, "Now we are the leaders in supersonic missile system with the successful development of Brahmos Cruise Missiles."

To sustain the leadership, some work should be started, for which both the Russian and Indian governments have given their initial clearance, he added.

Pillai, who is also the chief controller of Research and Development wing of Defence Research and Development Organisation, said work was in progress in this regard.

"Many countries will come forward to develop new products, which could be better than BrahMos. We can survive only by competitiveness and we don't want to be a second nation," he said.

In order to prepare ourselves to face the challenges, India is considering the configuration of a new weapon system, which would be more advanced than BrahMos and at the same time the best product.

Pillai said Russian Defence Minister Sergei Borisvich Ivanov, during his recent visit to India, held discussions on the ways and means to go beyond BrahMos.

The discussions were on the lines of sustainability and strength to be introduced in the current line of production.

Before embarking upon the new venture, both countries decided to improvise the recently developed supersonic missiles with new versions, pin-pointed accuracy on various types of targets, user-friendly design, more commercial viability and greater cost-effectiveness.

The action plans to be envisaged by BrahMos Aerospace would crystallise in another six to twelve months, he added.

Specialised panels of experts from both India and Russia would take up these issues one after the other as well as concurrently before a blue print was drawn up.

As regard to undersea launch version of BrahMos, Pillai said the missile part was already ready. Now it was to be test-fired, he said.

The firing could be done either from a capable submarine or from a pontoon (a structure like a submarine with a platform of over 50 to 60 mt depth from the surface of the water).

As of now Indian Navy submarines do not possess the requisite capability. Discussions were on with the Indian Navy and other agencies to install the required provisions in their submarines, he said.

Although, a time-frame could not be defined for this, he was hopeful that a suitable platform would be ready at the earliest, enabling the test.

The production of the army version of the missile was in full swing and similarly, the naval version missiles were getting inducted into all fleets. Air-version exercises were already over.

Both the countries have discussed on the export of BrahMos missiles, he said without divulging the names of the friendly countries.

He was confident that the export process would commence soon as the issue has been sorted out and Russia has already collated the list of countries.