Posted on 03/04/2009 11:27:40 AM PST by pobeda1945
NEW DELHI, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - India has successfully tested the latest land attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at a firing range in Pokhran in the Rajasthan Desert, a source in the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The source said that the weapon was fired in a vertical-launch configuration and the missile had successfully hit its designated target.
Officials at India's Defense Research and Development Organization, who has developed the missile together with Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia, were cited by The Times of India daily as saying it "took two and a half minutes to strike its target at the Pokhran firing range in Rajastahan."
The first successful test launch of the supersonic cruise missile from a vertical launcher was conducted last December from a mobile platform in the Bay of Bengal. All previous missile launches were carried out from inclined launchers.
The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 km (180 miles) and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg (660 lbs). It can effectively engage ground targets from an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the U.S.-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
The last test launch of the BrahMos land attack version was carried out in January at the Pokhran firing range, but the missile failed to hit the target, flew off course and later self-destructed.
Analysts estimate that India could purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its armed forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to other countries during the same period.
During a recent visit by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to India, the two sides agreed to develop a hypersonic version of the missile to be known as BrahMos-2.
I wonder why we (US) don’t have anything like that.
(Or maybe we do, and I’m just not aware of it?)
Our Free Trader/Globalist friends have probably out-sourced that technology to...ahem....India....
At least this is as far as India will be able to go with rocket tech. No way they could put a man in space....their astronauts would be dead if they ever had to use one of those Indian call-centers for help
India has already placed a probe on the moon.
Besides, about a couple of years ago, they launched and retrieved a space capsule capable of transporting astronauts.
I think I can see where your fear of H1-B’s and offshoring comes from.
http://www.zshare.net/video/53995633dc19529f/
Do you suppose there is an arms race going on?
The U.S. went from large ram jet powered cruise missiles to turbine powered cruise missiles. The turbine cruise missiles are slower but have a much greater range.
BrahMos: Range 290 km (180 miles) and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg (660 lbs).
BGM-109 Tomahawk: Subsonic - about 550 mph (880 km/h) Land attack, conventional warhead: 600 nautical miles (690 statute miles, 1104 km)
Warheads: Conventional: 1,000 pounds Bullpup, or Conventional submunitions dispenser with combined effect bomblets, or WDU-36 warhead w/ PBXN-107 explosive & FMU-148 fuze, or 200 kt. W-80 nuclear device
The latest U.S. cruise missiles are radar invisible. But they may have been pulled from service.
>> The turbine cruise missiles are slower but have a much greater range.
I’m thinking primarily anti-ship. 180nm range is still pretty darn far — definitely over-the-horizon — and very tough to defend against.
If I were in charge we would have BOTH types in our arsenal. And we’d be supplying the supersonic ones to Japan and Taiwan for potential use against the Chicoms.
That sucker is really moving.
Navy has been working decades to defend against the supersonic stuff. Still trying to come up with a decent target to work against.
The Taiwanese may actually export a few of their latest toys to Uncle Sam!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsiung_Feng_III
pakistan and iran ping.
What is the real range of this missile? Is it really just 290 km, conveniently inside MTCR regulations?
That would be fabulous!
It could extended if the designers want it-question is do they want it to be ??
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