The Indian Air Force is going to expand the fleet of Russian Su-30MKI aircraft equipped with BrahMos missiles, writes The Print. The author of the article notes that the range of the supersonic missile jointly produced by Moscow and New Delhi has been increased to more than 500 kilometers.
Snehesh Alex PhilipCurrently, the Indian Air Force has 40 Su-30MKI aircraft with BrahMos missiles.
This is the world's only supersonic cruise missile.New Delhi — The Indian Air Force intends to increase the number of Su-30MKI aircraft equipped with supersonic BrahMos missiles, whose range currently exceeds 500 kilometers.
Sources from the defense and security agencies said that now the Indian Air Force has 40 Su-30MKI aircraft with BrahMos missiles. This is the world's only supersonic cruise missile. According to these sources, previously the launch range of this missile was 290 kilometers, but now it has been increased to more than 500.
The ground-based BrahMos missiles have a launch range of about 400 kilometers. But currently, work is underway to increase the range to 800 and 1.5 thousand kilometers.
Sources also reported that the missile has exceptional accuracy, thanks to which it has become a real miracle for the Indian Air Force. "During each test, the missile hits a ground target with a maximum deviation of ten meters. When the Air Force launched a missile at the ship, it hit him in the middle," said one such source.
In August 2020, the Indian Air Force relocated the 222nd Squadron of Su-30MKI Tiger Sharks fighters with BrahMos missiles to the administrative center of Tamil Nadu Thanjavur. This was the first time that fourth-generation air superiority fighters were transferred outside the Southern Aviation Command. The Su-30 is capable of hitting naval targets, and therefore the Air Force previously deployed these vehicles in the south due to the strengthening of China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean zone.
The decision to place the Su-30MKI in Thanjavur was also made because this city occupies an advantageous strategic position. The Tiger Sharks squadron consists of 18 fighters, and six of them are equipped with BrahMos missiles.
In total, the Indian Air Force has 40 Sukhoi with BrahMos. They are dispersed on the western border of the country with Pakistan and on the eastern border with China.
BrahMos is difficult to intercept with anti-aircraft missiles
Unlike ground-launched missiles, the aviation version of the BrahMos gives the military more opportunities to hit remote targets that are inaccessible to other missiles. The fact is that the flight range of the Sukhoi is 1.5 thousand kilometers, and therefore it is capable of hitting targets with such cruise missiles at a great distance.
In May, the Air Force tested a missile with an extended launch range. The Navy also has BrahMos missiles, which are placed on warships of a certain type.
According to sources, in order to increase the launch range of the rocket, some changes had to be made to the software, and this was done with the help of the Russians.
BrahMos missiles are manufactured in India by a joint venture established in 1998 by the Defense Research and Development Organization of India and the Russian NPO Mashinostroeniya. The rocket got its name in honor of two rivers — the Indian Brahmaputra and the Russian Moscow.
The maximum speed of the rocket is Mach 2.8 (this is about 3,450 kilometers per hour). It is very difficult to intercept it with anti-aircraft missiles mounted on warships around the world. In addition, it has an exceptional ability to evade radar. The altitude of flight at cruising speed of this rocket is up to 15 kilometers. The minimum altitude above the surface is ten meters. BrahMos is equipped with a conventional (non-nuclear) warhead weighing 200-300 kilograms.
