Article Posted on : - Feb 26, 2012

An artistic image of BRAHMOS-II hypersonic missile.

TIRUCHI (PTI): BrahMos Aerospace plans to take up collaborative research work with educational institutions, including the National Institute of Technology here, for development of hypersonic version of BRAHMOS missiles.

BrahMos was roping in various academic and industrial institutions across the country for research on suitable robotics, sensitive materials and others required for the hypersonic missiles, its CEO and MD Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai said.

BrahMos Aerospace is an Indo-Russian joint venture producing BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missiles.

After the development of land, sea and air versions of supersonic missiles, BrahMos was in the process of venturing into development, design and production of hypersonic missiles, which can travel at seven to eight times the speed of sound (7-8 Mach), he said.

It was on the look out for new materials that could withstand high speed and heavy vibration in the development of hypersonic missiles.

NIT-Tiruchi, which has courses in disciplines like robotics, material management, metallurgy, was among the institutions being roped in for the collaboration, Dr. A.S. Pillai, who made a presentation at Pragyan, the annual Techno-Management festival of the institute, told PTI.

Institute Director Dr. Srinivasan Sundararajan said discussions with BrahMos had already been initiated and very shortly a collaborative pact would be finalised.