The Indian Army is all set to induct the Super Sonic Cruise Missile - BrahMos. In an official ceremony the missile will be handed over to the army chief, Gen JJ Singh in New Delhi in the presence of President APJ Abdul Kalam, Defence Minister AK Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
While BrahMos is an universal missile, capable of being laucnhed from all platforms, the land based version which has a range of 290 kilometers has undergone rigorous test fires and trials for the last few years. It can carry a warhead weighing up to 200 kg and has the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude.
It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.
The high speed of the BrahMos enables it to inflict more damage than slower cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk. Being twice as heavy and almost four times faster than the Tomahawk, the Brahmos has almost 16 times the kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missiles, which ensures far more lethal hits than a subsonic missile. The missile can be launched either in a vertical or inclined position and is capable of covering targets over a 360 degree horizon. The BrahMos missile has an identical configuration for land, sea, and sub-sea platforms.
The army is the second service to induct the missile. It has already been inducted into the Indian Navy and scientists are developing a miniaturized version for the air force that can be fitted to Sukhoi-30 combat jets. The BrahMos will be the third missile to be inducted into the land forces. The army has raised missile groups equipped with the Prithvi surface-to-surface missile with a range of 150 to 250 km and the 700-km medium-range Agni missile.