India’s Military Comes of Age: The BrahMos Missile

The Diplomat ^ | July 27, 2012 | James R. Holmes

[sukhoi-30mki]

India’s Military Comes of Age: The BrahMos Missile

By James R. Holmes

Indians take pride in the BrahMos anti-ship cruise missile, or ASCM. I was taken aback some years ago when some Indian friends—gentle souls with little interest in military affairs—professed satisfaction at this successful venture into defense R&D.While that encounter induced some vertigo, it makes sense when you think about it. The Indian military has long been a consumer of hardware manufactured by others. By fielding the BrahMos, India in effect kicked in the door to an exclusive club of nations that design and produce high-tech defense articles.

Beyond simply augmenting the Indian Navy’s (and Army’s, and eventually Air Force’s—of which more later) striking power, this lethal “bird” signifies that India is coming of age as a great power. Great powers operate aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. They build their own military equipment. Seemingly workmanlike endeavors like weapons design and manufacturing present an aspirant to global leadership a kind of talisman. Indigenously built weapons embody intangibles like national honor and grandeur.

Here endeth the philosophizing. Jointly developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s Mashinostroyeniye Company, the BrahMos is a stealthy, supersonic missile designed to elude shipboard defenses like the Aegis combat system, a combined radar and fire-control system found on board American, Japanese, and South Korean destroyers and cruisers. (Spain and Norway operate the system as well, while the Royal Australian Navy is outfitting its next-generation warships with it.) Aegis has stood at the vanguard of fleet air defense since the early 1980s, when USS Ticonderoga, the U.S. Navy’s first Aegis cruiser, stood out to sea. Getting past Aegis is an achievement.

Judging from the technical parameters, the Indian Navy has one-upped the U.S. Navy in this niche

[sukhoi-30mki]

[STD]

Hey Suk,

Why would india want an anti0shipping missile which can defeat Aegis anti-missile defenses? Why would it want to export 2,000 of these potentially lethal carrier killers to the enemies of the USA?

[ravager]

“Why would india want an anti0shipping missile which can defeat Aegis anti-missile defenses?”

Why? Because India can? If you have the ability to build a missile that can beat the best anti-missile defenses, it would be stupid to hold back. A lot of other countries already have (or are in process of developing) Aegis like systems.

“Why would it want to export 2,000 of these potentially lethal carrier killers to the enemies of the USA?”

Not sure India is only planning to sell to America's enemies but then US sells a lot more to Pakistan. So you cant really hold that against India.

[rmlew]

Why would india want an anti0shipping missile which can defeat Aegis anti-missile defenses? Why would it want to export 2,000 of these potentially lethal carrier killers to the enemies of the USA?
They haven't said anything about export. We export a lot to Pakistan. And India has to deal with the Chinese navy, which includes the LANZHOU ,Project 052C guided missile destroyers