BrahMos to go in for hypersonic versions of missiles

PTI (April 06, 2009)                                                                           Print This News

TIRUCHIRAPALLI: BrahMos Aerospace, the Indo-Russian joint venture, has embarked on initiatives to go in for hypersonic versions of missiles, a top official of the company said today.

"Having successfully inducted supersonic versions, which can travel at 2.8 Mach (2.8 times the speed of sound), plans are on to go in for hypersonic versions, which can touch Mach 5 or 7," Chief Executive Officer and MD of the company, Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, said at a function here.

He said fuel for these versions would be a combination of aviation kerosene and atmospheric air,mixed at a proportionate volume. "The resultant propulsion thrust could be so heavy that a missile could be projected at terrific speed," he said.

Pillai said lab tests had already commenced and that modules for these versions would be ready by 2010. The test missiles would be flown over rocket motors injected into space After the successful 'Block II test' last week, the company and DRDO had fulfilled all parameters prescribed by Army and was poised to go in for mass production for inducting these into the Army. As Naval ships are all equipped with BrahMos missiles, the next focus would be to address the needs of IAF, he said.

He hoped the final induction of the air version of BrahMos missile to IAF would take place before the end of 2012.

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