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Indian Navy Fires BrahMos-ER Missile; Can Strike Deep Into China, Pakistan Territory With Pinpoint Accuracy

The Indian Navy is steadily altering the deterrence equation in the Indian Ocean Region. Its extended-range land-attack BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which was test-fired for the second time, will give the Indian Navy the strategic capability to strike deep inside Pakistan’s territory. 

The counter-strike capability that comes from the highly maneuverable and one of the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world will play the role of an important deterrent in the Indo-Pacific region against a mighty adversary like China.

The Indian Navy announced the successful test on X. “Indian Navy & M/s BAPL (BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited) carried out successful engagement of land target at enhanced range with an advanced supersonic cruise missile. This endeavor revalidates ‘Aatma Nirbharta’ (self-reliance)  for extended range precision strike capability from combat & mission-ready ships,” the Indian Navy posted.

The test highlights the Indian Navy’s ability to strike even “deeper and influence land operations further away from sea” when and where required. Besides the enhanced range, the new missile has increased accuracy by introducing an active radar seeker.

The last such test was conducted on March 5, 2022, from stealth destroyer INS Chennai. The missile hit its target with pinpoint accuracy after traversing an extended-range trajectory and performing complex maneuvers. Both Brahmos missile and INS Chennai are indigenously built.

Later, on March 23, 2022, the Indian Army successfully test-fired the extended-range version of a surface-to-surface BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a launch pad in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A retired Indian Navy officer told the EurAsian Times: “It (the test) extends Indian Navy’s standoff capability to engage strategic land targets from sea, at a longer range, while remaining outside the range of enemy’s coastal and missile defenses.”




BRAHMOS MISSILE
File Image: BrahMos Missile. Via: Indian Navy

The baseline version of BrahMos that has been fitted into several Indian Navy warships has a range of 298 kilometers to meet the stipulations of the Missile Technology Control Regime.

India entered the MTCR club in June 2016 and thus began the work on enhancing the range of BrahMos further. The Indian Navy has refrained from giving the new extended range of the missiles, but the experts put it between 450 to 500 kilometers.

In Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, the BrahMos missiles have been deployed. Additionally, these missiles are being fitted into more than forty Sukhoi fighter aircraft, enhancing the force’s combat capacity.

In the early phases, BrahMos could be utilized for targeted strikes on heavily protected sites that are too risky for manned fighter aircraft to attack, such as airbases, headquarters, important roads, railways, or supply dumps.

The enhanced range version is yet to be inducted into the Indian armed forces.

The missile has air, land, sea, and submarine-launched variants. In 2018, India successfully carried out the maiden test firing of the over 290 km-range submarine-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Bay of Bengal, becoming the first country in the world to have this capability.

“The real game changer would be firing the BrahMos-ER from a submarine. Combining stealth with extended range, a submarine could threaten targets in Pakistan, north of Larkana,” the retired naval officer added. Owing to the ‘no first use’ policy, India needs to have a credible counter-strike capability, and sea and submarine-launched BrahMos give them this capability.

Supersonic BrahMos Beats Tomahawk Missiles?

BrahMos is a modification of Soviet-era anti-ship missiles (Oniks, Yakont) developed by the Reutov Design Bureau in the late 1980s. The name is a portmanteau derived from India’s Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moskva rivers.

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