The Indo-Russian BrahMos missile joint venture gets a new boss, Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra, in August. The senior missile scientist, currently posted at DRDO HQ in New Delhi, takes over from Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai, who led the company and its operations for over a decade. BrahMos has a fat captive market in the three Indian armed forces. Thing is, Dr Mishra’s to-do list is just as fat. A lot’s been achieved, but there’s plenty of work that the new boss needs to set a time-frame too. It won’t hurt if he’s the sort who’ll make some hard decisions with the company’s Russian partners too. Off the top of my head, here’s what’s on the new BrahMos CEO’s immediate plate:
- Get the air-launched version flying. The BrahMos-A, for launch off a modified Su-30 MKI has been slung onto a test aircraft. But that’s it. Carriage tests in flight and a test firing are slated for this year. They were also slated for every year in the last eight. To be fair, it wasn’t BrahMos’ fault alone. But that’s in the past. The missile needs to fly this year.
- Speed up testing of the underwater-launched version. After a first test last year, the submarine-launched version of the BrahMos has gone quiet. At least publicly. As a principal tactical land-attack and anti-ship weapon for future conventional submarines, it needs to, well, get there faster.
- Stop being a pushover to Russia. The current CEO, to be fair, has made efforts to whittle down Russia’s hold over the partnership. Remember, beyond some ambivalent noises, Russia refuses even now to induct the BrahMos.
- Spin off variants with larger Indian content. Russia currently calls all the shots in the partnership, because it supplies the engine and seeker for the BrahMos missile. As long as the Indian side restricts itself to only the inertial navigation guidance system and fire control system, it will never get to do what it really can with the BrahMos enterprise.
- Focus energies to ensure the hypersonic BrahMos-II, BrahMos-M and new smaller anti-ship missile proceed on the timelines much quicker than the original variant.
- Export the missile! The BrahMos hasn’t signed a single export contract despite plenty of interest abroad. Several South East Asian and Latin American countries want the BrahMos, or have at least expressed interest in it. The BrahMos company has so far been throttled by an MoD (well, the Foreign Office, really) chronically timid about the ‘message’ that would be sent out if India was seen to be exporting missile systems. This needs to change. The BrahMos partnership was forged on the understanding that the missile would be made available for export to mutually agreed friendly countries. A definite list of such countries already exists. It isn’t a long one.
Why are we not reverse engineering anything like china.
shiv, how can we sell Brahmos to other countries?? As and when a country expresses its interest in this missile, russia sends their sales folks to meet that countries MOD. As long as it is not 100% Indian product, it is going to be impossible to sell the product out side of Indian armed forces.
@Shiv Aroor
as per your points, i wish to make my observations
1. the air launched Brahmos will definately fly by year end
2. the sub launched Brahmos is a non starter simply bcoz whats the point in firing a 300 km missile when a 1000 km sub launched Nirbhay can do a better job
3. Russia will never induct Brahmos simply bcoz it has no need for such missiles. it already has PJ 10 (the forefather of Brahmos) and its derivatives
4. Indeed indian content in Brahmos can be increased subject to deals being signed
5. hypersonic BrahMos-II, BrahMos-M will be ready only by 2020
6. exports of Brahmos is possible but who will buy them when they can buy the original PJ-10 from Russia itself
thanks
Joydeep Ghosh
7… master… engine… technologies…
When the day we understand and practice "Reverse Engineering" policy,our country achieves the independence it needed badly in all defence and civillian market
Nation of 1.3billions brains still need nation 300million to help them. Pathethic
I am more than sure that Vietnam wants to buy the Brahmos. AFAIK, the ball (response) is in the Indian side to decide.
The reason Russia refuses to induct Bahmos is simply because Russia has got the same missile with different name but with no missile technology limit of 180 miles so why should Russia use one with less range. And please remember Rusdia gives you state of the ar thing like they gave you mig 29 in 90s so be respectful to
You sll weather freind.
how does russia not buying it constitute india being a 'pushover'? as if russia must be pushed over to prove india is not a pushover. fact is, to buy a range limited derivative of an existing russian missile makes NO sense. brahmos is a 50/50 jv, not a vehicle for india's aspirations alone. selling to 3rd parties is a good idea, and already approved by the russian partner, and bII seems to fit into russia's future plans: coordinating with them, at contractor and governmental levels, is the best way to facilitate future russian orders for brahmos II, not trying to scheme how to whittle down their involvement in JV. such amazing shortsightness and pettiness.
all connected with Russia's iconic dishes usually are fermented mainly to its lack connected with preservatives at the past. Fermentation would be the basis pertaining to creating bread ALONG WITH sauerkraut AS WELL AS preparing traditional Russian drinks such as Kvass IN ADDITION TO homemade beer. Russian refusal