India to launch aircraft version of Brahmos by December 2012

The Aircraft version of the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world, the Brahmos, would be launched by December 2012, a top official of the Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company has said. The aircraft modification of Sukhoi-30 to attach the missile is being done in Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL), Nasik and after proper reduction of weight and electronic interface and other various integration, the missile would be ready for launch by year end, pti reported quoting Dr A Shivathanu PIllai, CEO and Managing Director of the company as talking to reporters. Asked about production capacity, Pillai said the company was geared to produce any number of missiles for use in Indian Defence department and after fulfilling domestic requirements, it would consider supplying to other countries. The Army had conducted a successful trial of the Supersonic Cruise Missile recently, he said. The 290-Km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was test-fired at the Pokharan range in Jaisalmer on March 4, to operationalise the second regiment of the weapon system in service. On advanced Hypersonic missile, he said research was going on to design and develop the 7 'Mach' speed missile. Research has already started on propulsion of scramjet engine and it will reach the final stage by another two years, Pillai said. The company would enter into another agreement of 50.5: 49.5 ratio, for this version. On Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which was given prominence by China, he said it depended on the requirements of the individual country, as was done by India by developing Agni missile's four versions. The Agni-5, with 5,000 KM range, would be launched soon, Pillai said.