BrahMos hypersonic missile to touch Mach 5 to 7 speeds

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos
Aerospace is working on a hypersonic cruise missile that can
touch speeds ranging from five to seven times that of sound.
The cruise missile's supersonic version for the land
forces can touch speeds of two times the speed of sound and
has a 290-km range.
"The hypersonic version of the BrahMos, to be called
BrahMos-II, is in its design and technological development
stage. It will take some time to mature. But our aim is for it
to touch Mach 5 to 7 speeds, making it the fastest cruise
missile in the world," BrahMos' Chief Executive Officer A
Sivathanu Pillai told PTI at the DefExpo, land and naval
defence systems exhibition in the national capital.
"The hypersonic missile, which will be smaller than
BrahMos-I, will definitely provide an advantage to the Indian
armed forces in future warfare," Pillai said when asked about
the need for the missile.
The hypersonic version of the BrahMos would be built for
its air platforms.
Already, the BrahMos is in the process of developing an
air platform-based supersonic cruise missile and Sukhoi
fighter jets of the Indian Air Force have been chosen as the
platform for integrating the missile.
"The BrahMos will be integrated in to the Su-30MKI's built
in India. But the aircraft would be sent to Russia for fitting
a modified structure for the missile's integration. We plan to
get it done by 2012," he said. (MORE) PTI