Brahmos tests new precision- target capability

The governments of India and Russia have drawn up a list of countries to which sale of the Brahmos supersonic missile, produced by an Indo-Russian joint venture, can be approved. The approval came late last year and paves the way for international sales of the supersonic cruise missile. Any sale proposal however, will have to be cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security on a case-by-case basis. Sources stated that all issues concerning international marketing by the two partners in Brahmos- India and Russia have been addressed and there are strong inquiries from certain countries. The list of the approved countries was not disclosed but would be ones which had good relations with both India and Russia. In another development, the missile was tested recently in India for a new precision targeting capability by which the less significant targets in a cluster of targets would be hit. The rationale was that if the enemy was holed up in a small building or bunker surrounded by large structures, the missile would go for the smaller targets rather than destroy a larger target nearby. While a section of the media had dubbed the test a “failure”, sources said the missile went over the target by a small margin which accounts for more than 99% accuracy in such a complex scenario and the same would be corrected in subsequent trialst o have 100% hit accuracy, the sources said. The Brahmos missile new capability would be far superior to some of the precision- GPS guided missiles used by the U.S. military such as the Tomahawk. Rather than relying on GPS satellites which were not controlled by India, the Brahmos missile uses its inertial navigation systems and target seekers to achieve precise coordinates with advanced software updation . It would be the first ever cruise missile of its type, with such a high level of accuracy, once the tests were successful and would open up whole new markets and applications. The air attack version of the missile has been cleared by testing by Sukhoi aircraft. The Indian Air Force (IAF), the Sukhoi Aircraft company and HAL would coordinate with Brahmos to mount the missile in the underbelly of the SU-30MKI aircraft. The IAF would provide two aircraft for testing which is scheduled to begin next year. The air-launched Brahmos is expected to be inducted In the IAF by 2012. Brahmos currently has an order book worth $2 billion and is expecting it to go up to $10 billion in the next few years thanks to increased induction by the Indian defence services & expected export orders.