Posted on 04/10/2007 10:20:15 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Indonesia evinces interest in Brahmos missile
NEW DELHI, APR 10 (PTI)
After Malaysia, another ASEAN nation, Indonesia, has evinced keen interest in acquiring Brahmos supersonic cruise missile, especially its ship-to-land versions.
A visit to the Brahmos complex here was the highlight of a tour by Indonesian Navy chief Admiral Siamet Soebijanto.
Indonesia has taken keen interest in the cruise missile developed by India and Russia.
On a three-day visit here, the Indonesian Naval chief had a meeting with the Defence Minister A K Antony after talks with his Indian counterpart Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
Soebijanto was also given a detailed briefing on the security secnario in India and threat perceptions specially in its sprawling Island territories. He also met the Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt.
India and Indonesian Navies have been maintaining very close collobration over the past few years and have participated in bilateral as well as multilateral exercises in Andaman seas, Malacca Straits as well in waters off the Indian coast.
After his meeting with the top defence brass here, the Indonesian Naval Chief is visiting Western Naval Command at Mumbai, where he is likely to be shown top-of-the-shelf warships.
PJ-10 BrahMos
India expects to significantly enhance its long-range strike abilities with the BrahMos cruise missile, jointly developed by New Delhi and Moscow. The supersonic missile — which derives its name from the Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers in both countries - has a range of almost 300 km and is designed for use with land, sea and aerial platforms. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is reportedly considering the possibility of fitting the BrahMos on its Su-30 combat jets. The production will commence by end of 2003 for induction in the year 2004.
The BrahMos, a derivative of the Yakhont, was developed by a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia. The BrahMos missile is a product of an Indo-Russian joint venture known by the same name. Registered in December 1995, the company was set up as a result of an inter-governmental agreement between Russia and India, eventually signed in February 1998, to design, develop, produce and market a supersonic cruise missile jointly.
India and Russia plan to begin the induction of the jointly-developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile into their armed forces by the end of 2003. However, according to some reports military officials believe it is several years away from induction into the navy or the air force.
The BrahMos missile is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant booster and a liquid (propellant) ram jet system.
The jointly developed Indo-Russian anti-ship cruise missile, which was successfully test-fired from Chandipur interim test range in Orissa, is a crucial step forward in India’s defence efforts. This technological achievement places India among a small group of countries to acquire the capacity of producing cruise missiles. What, however, makes the jointly produced cruise missile distinguishable from others is that it travels at a supersonic speed i.e. more than twice the speed of sound. Almost all other contemporary anti-ship missiles fly at subsonic speed. Its other distinguishing feature is that the Indo-Russian cruise missile is a state-of-the-art product.
Its unmatchable speed is its high point, making it invincible. The supersonic speed imparts it a greater strike-power as well. Possessing stealth characteristics, the 6.9-meter cruise missile weighing three tons has a range of 280 km. Its another outstanding feature is that it is highly accurate and can be guided to its target mainly with the help of an onboard computer. This has been established by the test-flight. The computer and the guidance system have been designed by India whereas Russia has provided the propulsion system.
Test flights of the PJ-10 occurred on 12 June 2001, 28 April 2002, with a third test expected in June 2002. The test-firing of the cruise missile which took place in the middle of June 2001 was described as an unqualified success. The Brahmos recorded its performance as having met technical parameters, both in terms of the flight range and hitting accuracy. Defence Minister Jaswant Singh who was present at Chandipur along with Indian and Russian scientists and technologists described the launch as a “landmark in technology partnership”.
The Chandipur launch was the first in a series of test-flights of the cruise missile planned to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. A series of other test-flights will take place before the missile is simultaneously inducted into the Indian and Russian arsenals. It will also be sold to third countries in due course of time.
One of its special features is that this essentially anti-ship missile can be launched from ground, ship, submarine or air. Defence analysts underline that the eventual addition of this strategic missile is a logical follow-up of the goal set as per the country ‘s nuclear philosophy. Stated in plain terms, it is essential for the fulfilment of India’s minimum nuclear deterrent profile as outlined in the draft nuclear doctrine prepared by the Vajpayee Government. The acquisition of the cruise missile which can be tipped with a nuclear warhead has obvious implications for our nuclear weapons’ delivery system.
In order to avoid controversy, both India and Russia have taken care to ensure that the production of the cruise missile did not violate obligations under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) or any of the international agreements related to proliferation. That is why the missile range is well within the 300 km limit stipulated under the MTCR.
Both India and Russia welcomed the joint development of the supersonic cruise missile with great exuberance. Elated at the successful test flight from Chandipur, the state-owned Russian collaborating company, Mashinostroyenie, put the cruise missile on display at the Moscow annual air show. Mashinostroyenie designed the missile and its propulsion system, leaving the all-important software and the guidance system to its Indian counterpart— the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of the Defence Ministry.
New Delhi described the missile as an “outstanding example of Indo-Russian joint endeavour”. The President, Mr KR Narayanan and Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee termed it as a symbol of defence cooperation between the two countries.The development of the cruise missile takes their decades-old defence cooperation and the revived post-Cold War strategic partnership to a new high. It may be recalled that during the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in October 2000, a Joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership was issued. During the Defence Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh’s visit to Moscow a few days before the Chandipur launch, this strategic relationship was further reinforced. On these two occasions, the two countries signed a series of agreements on the acquisition of sophisticated weapon system and for a joint production of some of them including missiles.
The newly developed cruise missile is more than a match to similar anti-ship missiles available with China. The latter has mounted Moskit anti-ship missiles on its recently acquired Soverameny-class warships. Beijing is also planning to mount its aerial version of the Moskit on its SU-27 planes. The Indian cruise missile with its supersonic speed will be able to check movements by the Chinese warships, especially in the Indian Ocean area. Besides, its extraordinary accuracy and speed increases the range of its targets.
Nice videos of the test launch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TevEGHgaQs4
And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Eq4jeLcMz8
And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0np6B33YM30
Have a look at the first video. The missile passes right through that ship, making a hole from the starboard side all the way to the port side.
I wonder if India would sell some to us.
It’s a joint weapon-both partners would have to agree for sales to go ahead.
BTW,Clintoon did purchase of a few Russian supersonic missiles(the KH-31 Krypton) for tests with US Navy systems instead of developing domestic systems .The Ruskies were canny enough to sell downgraded variants!!
Is that a “Cruise” Missile, or just a missile?
Cruise missile-if you go by it’s flight characteristics.
[ back to weapons specifications ] [ back to missiles ]
| Specifications Table | |
| Specifications | |
| Origin | India/Russia |
| Speed | Mach 2.5 -2.8 |
| Type | Anti-Ship and Land Attack |
| Length | 8.4m |
| Diametre | 60cm |
| Launch Weight | 3000 kg |
| Warhead | 300 kg Conventional semi-armour pierceing warhead |
| Range | 290 kms |
| Propulsion | Two Stage integrated rocket/ramjet concept |
| 1st stage | Solid propellant rocket booster (installed in the combustion chamber of the sustainer) which accelerates the missile up to 2 mach |
| 2nd stage | After achieving 2 mach speed liquid propelled ram-jet accelerates it to maximum speed and sustain it during cruise phase. |
| Flight profile | |
| Variable flight | The optimal trajectory is selected according to nature and characteristics of target. |
| Sea-Skiming | To avoid anti-missile defence Brahmos remains at an altitude of 10-15 from launch to impact. Range achieved is about 120kms. |
I feel you on the flight characteristics...but I think this is simply a missile.
The article does not make it clear but it sounds like it is guided to it’s target by a user. The article says “with the help of an onboard computer” but that could mean anything.
This sounds like a missile...not like a “conventional” cruise missile that is pretargeted and uses terrain mapping or GPS to hit it’s target.
I dunno, the article does not spell it out.
It isn’t hard to imagine Malaysia and Indonesia, two Muslim nations, buying such weapons to seacretly pass along to Hamas or Al-Q. Then imagine a terrorist ship carrying one sailing within range of the White House.
You need to have a general idea of where your target is when the missile is fired but the missile contains its own seeker head and can acquire and hit moving ships on its own.
The Indonesian military is spectacularly corrupt, ill-trained, and incompetent.
I’ve seen various articles on them fantasizing about a variety of advanced weaponry but I suspect it’s a pipe dream - they don’t have the infrastructure to master this stuff, and if they do buy it it’s money that would have better been spent on training.
We have our own sea-skimming supersonic drone now, the GQM-163 Coyote.
Err,GPS & terrain contour mapping are one of the several means of guiding a cruise missile.By your criterion,the vast majority of cruise missiles wouldn’t be cruise missiles!!The writer of the article probably meant inertial navigation systems.Many of technologies used for the Tomahawk(which is your obvious reference) are now used for a host of missiles including the Boeing Harpoon & the Brahmos.The Brahmos is still not a complete project-it will get a datalink as well as the capability to use GPS signals(from the Russian GLONASS,when it becomes fully operational in about 4 years).
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cruise-missile3.htm
This gives a primary definition of cruise missile!!
Thanks.
Then it is not a "cruise missile" it is just a missile with nice range.
Indonesia & Malaysia,while Slammic are still far better off than their cousins like the Pakis or the Saudis.
About armssales,the West,including America still maintains & even sells weaponry to both of them.Malaysia is buying a variety of systems like anti-aircraft missiles & is being offered the SuperHornet.The US after years of sanctions,is starting to rebuild it’s ties with the Indonesian military.Australia recently donated spareparts for Indonesian Hercules aircraft.
By your logic,then the Tomahawk is the world’s sole cruise missile!!!!
Err, actually it is two of three.
This is just a missile.
There are two kinds of missiles, ballistic and cruise. Ballistic missiles follow a parabolic path to attain apogee, and then fall back to the target, if the initial half of the ballistic path was as per calculations.
Cruise missiles avoid that ballistic part of flight. It can take any course, and isn’t constrained to the ballistic flight path.
Why not read up on what a cruise missile means.
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