India used its fastest and most sophisticated cruise missile system, BrahMos, to destroy Pakistani air bases during the conflict with Pakistan, Union Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed recently. In retaliation to Pakistan’s airspace violations, the precision strikes successfully targeted several strategic air and military bases deep inside Pakistan, including Jacobabad, Sargodha, Bholari, Rafiqui, Murid, and Sukkur. This is the first time that a missile like BraMmos was deployed in combat, a big shift in India’s defence strategy, which has been one of deterrence.
What is Brahmos and what are its key features?
BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, which means that it is a self-moving, guided missile that can travel faster than sound. It can demolish targets up to 800 km and be launched from multiple platforms, including land, air, sea, or sub-sea. What sets BrahMos apart from other missiles is its speed and precision. It can travel at speeds between Mach 2.8. and 3.0, which is three times more than that of its subsonic cruise counterparts. This unmatched speed gives BrahMos the ability to infiltrate even the most sophisticated air defence systems and makes it difficult to intercept.
The BrahMos operates on the “fire and forget” principle, which means it does not need to be guided once launched. In the first stage of launch, a solid propellant booster brings it to supersonic speed and then detaches after take-off. A liquid-fuelled ramjet engine brings it to Mach 3 speed in the second stage. The missile can move at a height of up to 15 km and hit as low as 10 m below ground level. It can carry 200-300 kg of high-explosive warheads.
The BrahMos is not just fast, it is also accurate and can strike targets within a few metres of deviation and with a very low margin of error, making it the best missile to deploy for time-sensitive targets and surgical strike operations.
How was BrahMos developed?
The BrahMos has been jointly developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s rocket design bureau Mashinostroyenia as a joint venture, established through an inter-governmental agreement in 1998. The name ‘Brahmos’ is derived from the Indian river Brahmaputra and Russia’s Moska River. The missile was tested for the first time in 2001 and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2005 and the Indian Army in 2007. The Indian Air Force received an air-launched variant later for its Sukhoi-30mki fighter aircraft in 2017.
What is the significance of a cruise missile?
This means that Brahmos can follow the course of an aircraft. While ballistic missiles follow a fixed arc and high altitude, cruise missiles like BrahMos can be deployed at lower altitudes and programmed to follow various paths, such as low-high-low or low-low-low. This makes them able to escape radar detection, making their interception difficult. India is the first country in the world to master cruise missile technology.
Brahmos Deployment Signals Change in India’s Defence Strategy
BrahMos’s deployment in Operation Sindoor signals India’s military might and to the world also a change in its defence strategy against Pakistan to one of forward posturing. So far, India has confined its surgical strikes to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). However, this time it penetrated 100 km inside Pakistan as a part of Operation Sindoor and destroyed terrorist hubs.
