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Deadly Combo: Why Su-30MKI Jets Armed With Supersonic BrahMos Missiles Is Bad News For China & Pakistan?

India has successfully tested BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from its Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet. Experts have hailed this as a major milestone as the deadly duo of BrahMos and Sukhoi can incapacitate enemy offensive capabilities, once for all.  

“The missile launched from the aircraft followed the pre-planned trajectory and met all mission objectives,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense. 

The launch, which was hailed as a “major milestone” in the development of the BrahMos, took place over the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha on December 8.

On the successful test-firing, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh commended the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the Indian Air Force, and the other stakeholders.



Sukhoi-BrahMos
An IAF Sukhoi Su-30MKI launches a BrahMos missile on December 8. (DRDO image)

G Satheesh Reddy, secretary in the Department of Defense Research and Development and chairman of DRDO, congratulated the teams involved in the flight test, saying that various laboratories at the premier agency, academic institutions, public sector undertakings, and IAF participated in the testing, production, and induction of this complex missile system. 


BrahMos + Su-30 MKI – Why This Test Is Significant?

The missile has been developed by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya. The missile gets its name from two rivers: India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva.

Called the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos has already been inducted into the Indian armed forces. 

The 8.4-meter BrahMos has a range of roughly around 400 kilometers (increased from 290 kilometers following India’s entrance into the Missile Technology Control Regime) and can carry a conventional payload weighing up to 300 kilograms. It can cruise at Mach 2.8 supersonic speed owing to its high precision and destructive power. 

Since the missile will be fired from a moving platform, unlike the land and navy variants, BrahMos Aerospace had to lower the weight of the air version to 2.5 tones. The missile’s land and naval versions each weigh 2.9 tones. Its design was also tweaked to make it easier to integrate into the Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft. 




A BrahMos being test-fired from an IAF Su-30 MKI on October 30, 2020. (via Twitter)

Major airframe assemblies, which are an integral part of the missile’s Ramjet engine, were developed in-house by the Indian defense industry. Non-metallic airframe sections, such as the Ramjet fuel tank and pneumatic fuel supply system, are among them.

The structural integrity and functional capability of the device were demonstrated during the test. The launch marks a significant step forward in the BrahMos development process. It paves the way for the serial production of air-version BrahMos missiles within the country.




BrahMos – Wikimedia Commons

On December 7, India also successfully test-fired the VL-SRSAM (Vertically Launched Short Range Surface to Air Missile) from the Chandipur-based ITR. The Indian Navy will use the DRDO-designed system, which can engage targets at roughly 15 kilometers.

Su-30 And BrahMos: A Lethal Combo?

The inclusion of the BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) will significantly improve the Indian Air Force’s capacity to strike heavily defended targets deep inside enemy territory.

Even if the BrahMos is launched from a Su-30 MKI within Indian territory, they now have a large strike range. For any future battles, this will entail a turning point. The first objective in active battles is to attack important enemy installations and defense assets.

Moreover, the missile is equipped with an inertial navigation system and a global positioning system and can engage ground targets from as low as 10 meters, especially for precision strikes on “terror training camps”.




An IAF Su-30 takes off from RAAF Base Darwin, Australia during Exercise Pitch Black 18. (Image: IAF)

The air version of BrahMos was last flight tested in July 2021. The 2.5-tonne air-launched missile has a range of 300 km and a maximum speed of 2.8 Mach.

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