The Indian Army got the second regiment of indigenously produced Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles, yesterday. Artillery chief said the Brahmos system has emerged as the most reliable system for the armed forces.
The second BrahMos cruise missile regiment of ground systems with mobile launchers, command post, replenishment systems, fire-control systems with sophisticated electronic hardware and software and multiple communication systems was delivered to the Army on Wednesday.
Brahmos Aerospace chief S Pillai said the supersonic speed of Mach 2.8 all through its 290km range, precision of near zero circular error probability and devastating power-nine times more kinetic energy than sub-sonic cruise missiles, has made Brahmos world leader in cruise missile technology and the preferred first strike weapon of the armed forces.
While the Agni family of nuclear-capable missiles are meant to act as a deterrent, BrahMos and the under-development 150-km Prahaar missile are highly-mobile, all-weather `battlefield support missile systems’ for accurate and concentrated fire assaults at enemy targets in conventional warfare.
In 2007, the Army had first inducted a regiment of BrahMos-I, which consists of 67 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12×12 Tatra vehicles and two mobile command posts, among other equipment.
Handing over the regiment to artillery director-general Lt-General Vinod Nayanar, in presence of BrahMos chief Dr A S Pillai, minister of state for defence M M Pallam Raju said, “BrahMos is a versatile system and now available in multiple versions. Navy and IAF have ordered BrahMos missiles worth Rs 3,568 crore and Rs 1,295 crore, respectively.