Explained: BrahMos Missile That's Three Times Faster Than The Speed Of Sound

In an unfortunate mishap, India accidentally fired a cruise missile into the Pakistani side during routine maintenance. According to Pakistani officials, the missile was unarmed and had crashed about 500 km from the capital Islamabad.

India soon acknowledged its fault and considered the incident regrettable. The Indian Defence Ministry in a formal statement stated that it happened due to a "technical malfunction" during routine maintenance and luckily no loss of life was reported. The government has taken the incident seriously and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry.

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Moeed Yusuf, National Security Adviser (NSA) of Pakistan accepted that it was an accident. However, he marked questions on India's ability to handle sensitive technology like BrahMos Cruise Missile. He further said that "the flight path of this object endangered many national and international passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace as well as human life and property on ground.¡±

The missile, which accidentally hit Pakistan is not an ordinary arm weapon but is the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. Several stunning features and capacities make this missile one of the fastest and most efficient missile systems across the world.

What is BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile?

Presently, among operationally deployed missiles, BrahMos is one of the fastest cruise missiles having Mach 2.8 speed which means approximately 3 times more than the speed of sound.

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As the missile is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India (DRDO) and the NPOM of Russia. The name of the missile is also named on two rivers India and Russia, Brah for Brahmaputra and Mos for Moskva.

BrahMos is a two-stage missile in which the first stage has a solid-propellant engine and the second stage is equipped liquid ramjet engine.

The phenomenon part of the missile is that it can be launched from land, air, and sea and multi capability missile with pinpoint accuracy. Apart from being a multiplatform missile, it is effective in any weather and works on both day and night. Once launched, it does not require any guidance as it operates on the principle of "Fire and Forgets".

Advance Version of BrahMos

Initially, the world¡¯s most lethal cruise missile was developed with a range capped at 290 km. The cap was decided as per the obligations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

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In 2016, India entered into the MTCR club and then the range was planned to be extended to 50 km and to 600km at a later stage. In November 2017, the air-launched variant of the missile was successfully test-fired from a Sukhoi-30MKI.

In November 2020, India tested a land-attack version of the e missile from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Recently, this month, the Indian Navy successfully test-fired a long-range version of the BrahMos cruise missile. The navy tweeted, "Long-range precision strike capability of advanced version of BrahMos missile successfully validated. Pinpoint destruction of target demonstrated combat and mission readiness of frontline platforms¡­¡±

Recent media reports also suggest that India is developing a new air-launched version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile which would be able to strike at enemy targets at more than 800 kilometres.

What is Missile Technology Control Regime?

The G-7 countries (USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan) established Missile Technology Control Regime in April 1987. Presently, it is a partnership among 35 countries in order to prevent the proliferation of missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology capable of carrying greater than 500 kg payload for more than 300 km.

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It is an informal and voluntary partnership where decisions are taken consensually by all the member countries. The supply of missiles like UAV systems to non-members is controlled by MTCR.

It includes certain guidelines regarding information sharing, national control laws, export policies for missile systems and a rule-based regulation mechanism to limit the transfer of critical technologies of these missile systems.

India Exports its premier missile

Recently, India and Philippines inked the BrahMos missile deal worth $374.9 million. It was signed between the Philippines and BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd and was the first export order for the missile. The Philippines bought a shore-based anti-ship variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. It was reported that Philippines signed this deal to tackle Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

Furthermore, several other countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand expressed in buying the missile.

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