India to test-fire airborne BrahMos cruise missile from Sukhoi Su-30MKI in 2016
SINGAPORE. Feb 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Indian company BrahMos Aerospace Limited will perform the first test launch of a Russian-Indian supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet in 2016, a spokesman for Irkut Corporation told reporters on Wednesday.
"BrahMos Aerospace Limited executives are planning the first test-launch of the new rocket from the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet this year," he said at the Singapore Airshow 2016.
The Indian Air Force command has declared the desire to adjust some of Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters to the missile.
The BrahMos missile is a derivative from Russia's Yakhont with similar features. The main advantages of this missile are high speed, diversity of tactical schemes and applications, and compatibility of seaborne, undersea, airborne and coastal modifications.
BrahMos is a universal missile. The airborne missile will be 500 kilograms lighter than its basic modification.
The BrahMos missile is designed to destroy a broad range of seaborne targets. It has a long range (up to 290 kilometers), supersonic speed (up to 2.8 Mach), a large combat payload (up to 250 kilograms) and low signature. The missile, whose weight is three tonnes in the basic modification, flies in altitudes from ten to 14,000 meters along a changeable trajectory.
In specialists' opinion, there are no analogues of the missile travelling at a supersonic speed on such ranges. Compared to foreign analogues available for exports, BrahMos is three times better in speed parameters and 2.5-times better in the range of operation.
