"It's A Hittile": BrahMos Ex-Chief On Missile's Journey, Strength And Future

The world's fastest supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos, showcased "India's military might" during Operation Sindoor after it struck Pakistan's military infrastructure during the 100-hour battle, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the missile gave Pakistan "sleepless nights" during the operation.

From its inception in 1998, when India and Russia signed an agreement, paving the way for the formation of BrahMos Aerospace, to the missile's first combat use in 2025, BrahMos has evolved over the last two decades. 

Atul D Rane, former Director General, BrahMos Aerospace, spoke to NDTV, sharing insights on BrahMos' path to indigenisation, what makes it difficult to intercept, its integration with Su-30MK, becoming a "universal missile" and the future of the missile.

Path To Indigenisation 

"When BrahMos was conceived, we used a baseline principle that we would work on one of the Russian engines. We started with about 7 per cent of the missiles being indigenous and quickly upped it to about 15 per cent. But after that, it was a process of the Indian industries picking up production and indigenizing stuff, which was manufactured in Russia," Mr Rane said.

"Slowly, over the years, the indigenous content has risen, with various components coming in, and the Indian defence industry has done a commendable job," he said.

"Today, we are sitting at close to 84 per cent...But what is flying right now is only about 74 to 75 per cent, because it takes some time before the indigenized subsystem or system gets qualified to enter a combat missile," he said.

BrahMos - Not A Missile But A Hittile

BrahMos is the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile, meaning it can travel faster than the speed of sound. BrahMos can hit targets 400 kilometres away and travel at Mach 3 (Three times the speed of sound). 

Mr Rane said speed is a big factor that makes it difficult to intercept. "Speed plays the maximum factor. It's fast. It's hugely fast. We have been working on many improvements over the years. And the thing is, it's a very slip missile compared to what it does. So, the radar cross section is also fairly low. High-speed, Low Radar Cross-Section (RCS), what more do you want?"

Firing of ship-launched BrahMos

High speed and low RCS make BrahMos difficult to intercept by radars, along with its high manoeuvrability, especially at high speed, but Mr Rane said we have done it. 

"The BrahMos has evolved into a weapon which doesn't fly like an arrow. It flies like a missile, and a missile which hits the target...Normally, everyone talks about a miss distance or the circular error of probability of a missile. In BrahMos, over the days, as we kept working on the missile, different tests, which we've done, the user trials, which they have been doing to learn themselves and train themselves, I have started saying that BrahMos is not a missile. It's a hittile. It hits the target it's designated to hit."

The term hittile is used to describe a missile or a weapon with high accuracy and reliability in hitting the target.

BrahMos works on a "fire and forget principle" with a seeker, a vital part of a missile which detects, tracks a target with accuracy. BrahMos uses an Indian seeker, but the development has taken years. Mr Rane said the "Seeker has been a bugbear for us for years. But the challenge was that it needed to be done. We started 20 years ago."

"Today, it's capable of flying. It's not just the seeker alone...the integration, the accuracy of the hardware, the airframe, and then coming down to the navigation system, the tweaks we have to do to the navigation system, the onboard control, all this put together creates the accuracy of the missile," he added.

Integration With Su-30MKI

BrahMos is a heavy cruise missile, and integrating it with the Russian Su-30MKI multi-role fighters was a challenge, from its engineering to the high cost of getting it done outside.

Mr Rane said, "Anything imported or import-substituted starts with a large cost. Yes. When the management of Brahmos Aerospace, along with DRDO, decided that the cost of trying to get it done from outside would be too much, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited also came on board. People worked tirelessly. It's not just the integration of the missile into the aircraft but also the electrical and software interfaces. The Indian Air Force chipped in because they already knew about the Su-30. An even bigger challenge was that we didn't know the Su-30 inside out. We had to create wind tunnel models. We had to create the separation studies."

Test firing of BrahMos from Su-30MKI

He further explained that the engineers had to factor in whether BrahMos was safe to separate from the Su-30. "The mother aircraft is much more precious than the BrahMos missile. It was a very long journey. I must say, there would have been at least 200 to 300 engineers, armed forces personnel, and HAL personnel working on this project," Mr Rane said.

The heaviest weapon being carried on an aircraft is the Brahmos air version on the Su-30, the former DG of BrahMos Aerospace told NDTV.

Becoming A Universal Weapon

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinotroyenia (NPOM), with India holding 50.5 per cent and Russia with 49.5 per cent. The first test launch of the BrahMos took place on June 12, 2001, in Odisha's Chandipur.

Mr Rane said, "BrahMos was initially conceived to be only an anti-ship cruise missile, a supersonic cruise missile. But then, once it started working, it started coming out that one shouldn't just be sitting with one fantastic product. One needs to make sure it's delivered on time, which is a mantra of BrahMos to deliver things on time. We moved quickly from an anti-ship cruise missile to a land-attack missile. Once the Indian Army got in with it, they said that we would like to see some more stuff that is launching from high altitudes, having waypoints, getting over mountains...The improvement has been seamless."

"Today, it's a universal missile. The missiles, which are launched from the surface, are either from the Indian naval ships or from the mobile autonomous launchers which are with the Indian Army; these two missiles can be swapped without any problem. The idea was to create a universal missile. The dream is to have a cartridge, a missile filled in a canister, and you pick up that canister and put it wherever you want, and the missile can be used. Of course, with a little tweak in software," he said.

The air version of BrahMos is different from the ship and mobile-launcher variant since the Su-30MKI can't carry such a heavy missile in its underbelly.

Future Of BrahMos

BrahMos was at the forefront of the offensive during Operation Sindoor, and it can travel at Mach 3 speeds. A hypersonic variant (speeds exceeding Mach 5) is reportedly under development, along with an extended range of the missile from the current 400. BrahMos started with a range of 290 kilometres and has evolved into being more potent than it was many years ago.

Mr Rane said, "Any incremental research takes time and also, of course, money, which is being put in. The current BrahMos, in its current size and shape, has a limitation. But it's a limitation, and it can go somewhere where no one else has gone...we should see it very soon."

"We could look at a smaller and potent version of BrahMos so that we could put two missiles in the underbelly of the Su-30 instead of one, and not just Sukhoi, but other aircraft as well," he said.

Mr Rane shared that the design has already started, and we have already reached the point of cutting metal. We're looking at the BrahMos next generation, a smaller missile. Equally fast. Of course, lighter. So the kinetic energy when it hits will be a little different, but good enough to destroy targets.

"The Tejas Mark-II, an ungraded version of the Tejas Mark 1, will carry the BrahMos-NG, one each under the wings. So two BrahMos on each Tejas and possibly a full-scale large BrahMos under the belly of the Su-30 and two NGs under the wings of the Su-30," Mr Rane said.

India has also delivered the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines. Several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, and Middle Eastern nations have also reportedly expressed interest in the missile systems.