Article Posted on : - Jun 12, 2011

An artistic image of 'BRAHMOS- 2'.

NEW DELHI (BNS): A hypersonic variant of BRAHMOS cruise missile system should be developed that can be reused, former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam suggested on Sunday.

Addressing an event to mark 10 glorious years of first supersonic launch of the BRAHMOS cruise missile, Dr. Kalam said, “BRAHMOS will graduate to hypersonic cruise missile… it should be a reusable hypersonic cruise missile, meaning that it would return to its base after delivering the payload.”

Plans are going on to develop the advanced version of the weapon system that can travel at a speed of Mach 5 to 7. The new missile, to be called BRAHMOS II, will be smaller than the original BRAHMOS.

Speaking on the occasion, A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace - the JV company between India and Russia - described BRAHMOS as “an unparalleled system.”

“Its speed, precision and devastating power in destroying the target made the weapon unparalleled. Its competitor is yet to born,” he said.

India and Russia set up the JV through an Inter-Governmental Agreement signed on February 12, 1998 to jointly design, develop, produce and market the BRAHMOS missile system.

On the joint partnership, Dr. Pillai said, “The JV has become a symbol of Indo-Russian friendship and also changed the minds of the developed countries in the dynamics of war itself.”

Governor of Chhattisgarh and former Defence Secretary of India, Shekhar Dutt, who was also present during the event, said that BRAHMOS today has carved a niche for itself after a decade of journey.

“The formation of the company set an example of integration of jointly developed high technology military products and its promotion in the world defence market. Both the product and the JV company have established a unique status in the world with a brand,” he said.

The BRAHMOS programme achieved its first milestone when the supersonic cruise missile system was successfully test-fired for the first time from Chadipur, Orissa on June 12, 2001.

The missile has already been inducted in the Indian Army and Navy while the air-launched version it set to be test-flown next year.