Test-Firing of Brahmos Cruise Missile from Sukhoi-30MKI in Late November

Final preparations for test firing of the Brahmos Cruise Missile from the belly of a Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft are being made for possible launch in late November.

"Some 20-30 hours of flying with the 2.5 ton missile strapped to the aircraft's underbelly besides a number of drop tests in varying conditions have been accomplished," Brahmos joint managing director, Alexander Maksichev told defenseworld.net at the Dubai Airshow today.

The designated target will be a ship somewhere in the Bay of Bengal and the missile would be fired from a height of some 7000 meters-9000 meters, he said adding that preparations are in full swing for the first-ever firing of the cruise missile from the aircraft.

Two aircraft are being prepared of which one will fire the missile and the other will be on stand-by.

While the missile will be supplied by Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint-venture, the Su-30MKI aircraft are being provided by the Indian Air Force. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is doing the integration.

The success of the test-test firing would increase the combat range of the aircraft  from the current 300 km to some 1500 km as the supersonic cruise missile can home in on targets over 1000 km away if launched from the air.