India, Russia working out modalities to upgrade BrahMos

Coimbatore, Oct 23 (PTI) India and Russia are working
out modalities for increasing speed of the BrahMos missile
from super sonic to hypersonic, a top Brahmos Aerospace
executive said here Saturday.
This upgrade will take at least five years since it
requires modification of scramjet engine, technology,
reduction size and weight, Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, Chief
Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Indo-Russian
joint venture company said.
The budget for the project is yet to be estimated,
Pillai said adding it was too early to go into details.
On the air version of BrahMos for IAF, he said it will
be ready by 2012 and tested at SAR platform of Sukhoi 30.
After the induction of this version, India will be the
only country which will have supersonic missiles in all the
defence forces, Pillai said. BrahMos missile have already
been inducted into Army and Navy.
He said scientists have successfully conducted the
steep dive test of BrahMos missile, making the missile a
multi-faceted and multi-discipline, since it had all variants
of land to land, sea to land, land to sea and sea to sea.
Pillai, here to release a book, also said the Defence
Research and Development Organisation has developed a laser
sensor, which was capable of testing blood sugar levels
without touching a drop of blood.
The device, expected to ready for production in six
months, could be placed even on the wrist watch worn by a
person, Pillai said. PTI