Article Posted on : - Feb 26, 2012

A model of Sukhoi aircraft carrying the BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile.

TIRUCHI (BNS): The BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile for the Indian Air Force's multi-role Su-30 MKI fighters is being developed and a test flight will probably be held by the end of this year, said Dr A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD BrahMos Aerospace, as reported by The Times Of India.

With this, India would get the capability to fire these missiles from land, sea as well as air. BRAHMOS are already fitted on naval warships as well as inducted by the Army.

Dr. A.S. Pillai was in Tiruchi on Saturday to deliver a lecture in the ongoing Pragyan 2012 of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi (NITT).

According to him, the paradigm of India's progress must be in the course of a leap frog in technology. "When the world had a cruise missile, India went forward to make a supersonic cruise missile," he was quoted as saying in the news report.

Pillai stressed on the versatility and elite characteristics of the world's only supersonic cruise missile, which is capable of being launched from land or sea to any target on land or sea, with a speed of 2.8 Mach.

The BRAHMOS missile is a successful Joint Venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia.