Russia and India will start the development of a new supersonic missile nearly invincible to interception. No army in the world has anything similar to it. The sum of the investment has not been defined yet, but it can be expected to reach billions of dollars.
The missile is to become a successor of the supersonic missile BrahMos (known as Yahont in the Russian army) that is now installed on ships, land missile complexes and may soon be installed on Su-30 MKI fighter jets and submarines. This possibility was discussed on Tuesday at the meeting of an intergovernmental committee on military and technical collaboration that took place in Moscow and was chaired by Russian and Indian Defense Ministers, Anatoly Serdyukov and Arackaparambil Kurien Antony.
The missile was named in honor of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. BrahMos is considered to be a successful Russian-Indian joint project. It is unique since it’s the only cruise missile in the world that can be launched both as a single unit and a group. Its highly intelligent operational system allows the missile to reach the speed of Mach 3.0, which is three times faster than the speed of the subsonic American Tomahawk cruise-missile). BrahMos can engage any sea target, and a group of these missiles can destroy an entire ship formation.
The missiles are so clever that they not only detect a target but develop a plan of attack based on the enemy’s air defense. They know exactly which target is the primary one, which of them is an attacker and which is a defender. When the main target is destroyed, they re-prioritize and continue with the attack. Now even more advanced missile is on the way.
“These intentions mean that Delhi has strategic goals, and I believe they are realistic,” said Alexander Lukyanov, head of the Scientific Development and Production Center where the missile was designed.
On Tuesday, India confirmed its intentions of the joint development of the fifth generation of fighter jets and financing of modernization of Admiral Gorshkov cruiser
