BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile to be tested next year

An upgraded, lightweight BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile will be tested in 2026.

 

Alexander Maksichev, the Russian managing director of Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace, said the work on the design stage of the missile is currently in progress and will be completed by 2026. Following the completion, autonomous tests will be conducted.

 

"We are currently at the working design stage, which we will complete next year, and then we will move on to autonomous tests," Maksichev was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.

 

The BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) will have a flight range of over 300 kilometers and will be half the weight of the original variant—1.29 tonnes compared to 2.9 tonnes.

 

The production of the BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile, which is expected to have improved manoeuvrability, ease of deployment, and reduced radar signature,  is expected in three to five years.

 

The missile will give India a greater combat edge as it can be integrated into a wide range of fighter jets, including LCA (light combat aircraft) Tejas, Rafale, and MiG-29. The missile is expected to increase India's areal strike power as BrahMos-NG’s smaller size allows fighters like Tejas Mk1A to carry two missiles and Su-30MKI up to three or four.

 

"We are looking at BrahMos-NG, smaller version of BrahMos to fit on all our aircrafts. Today, BrahMos can be fitted only on Sukhoi, we will make it ready for all aircrafts," DRDO chief Samir V. Kamat had said recently.

 

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is jointly developed by Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India.

Defence