BrahMos marks 10 glorious years of first supersonic launch

Brahmand.com (June 12, 2011)                                                                           Print This News

NEW DELHI: Ten years ago, an Indian-Russian military endeavour achieved its first milestone when the BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile system’s maiden successful launch took place from Chandipur, Orissa on June 12, 2001.

After a decade of journey, the BRAHMOS missile has established itself as a unique weapon system, “an unparalleled system whose competitor is yet to be born,” as termed by Dr. A S Pillai, CEO & MD of the JV company BrahMos Aerospace.

“Its speed, precision and devastating power in destroying the target made the weapon unparalleled. Its competitor is yet to be born,” Dr. Pillai said during an event to commemorate 10 glorious years of first supersonic launch of BRAHMOS missile on Sunday.

The event also celebrated the decades-old India-Russia strategic partnership.

A conference on ‘Joint Ventures & Technology Collaborations in Defence – Towards Realising World Class Systems’, organised on the sidelines of the event, provided a unique platform to deliberate on and explore new avenues to expand Indo-Russia strategic partnership.

Speaking on the occasion, former Indian Ambassador to Russia S K Lamba said, “BRAHMOS is a world class products and a unique example of cooperation in critical areas of technology between India and Russia.

“If the missile is inducted in the armed forces of both the countries, it would then certainly reach the global defence market.”

Sharing his experiences on the project, Alexander Semaev, first Deputy Director General of NPOM – the Russian partner in the programme – said that the first successful launch of the BRAHMOS missile was and will always be special.

“It had proved that the project was a success…we had developed the weapon in a very short time.”

Talking about the roadmap ahead for the project, he said, “We have a challenging task ahead as we have to enhance our production capabilities and deliver the weapon system to the customers on time,” adding that, “our target is to reach the global market.”

Echoing similar views, A Dergachev, Chairman, BrahMos Board, said that scientists and experts working on the project should have new perspective to develop newer variants of the missile.

“BRAHMOS should not stop here and must continuously develop and grow,” he said, adding that work on the next variant of the missile – a hypersonic BRAHMOS – should start.

On the ocsasion, BrahMos Aerospace also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for setting up a ‘Centre of Excellence for High Speed Aerodynamics’.