BrahMos NG trials in late 2024; To be integrated on Su-30 MKI, Mig-29 & LCA Tejas

Source : Indian Defence Analysis

BrahMos-NG on LCA Tejas (File Photo)

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, produced by the Russian Indian enterprise BrahMos Aerospace. Riding on the phenomenal success of BrahMos missile, on 26th December 2021 the defence minister Rajnath Singh had laid the foundation stone for the BrahMos Missile production in UP Defence corridor. The estimated cost of the project is about Rs 300 crore. 

The BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre, announced by BrahMos Aerospace, is a modern, state-of-art facility in the Lucknow. It will cover over 200 acres and produce the new BRAHMOS-NG (Next Generation) variant, which carry forward the lineage of the BRAHMOS weapons system. The new centre is expected to be ready in the next 18 to 24 months and will commence production at the rate of 80-100 BRAHMOS missiles per year.

BrahMos-NG specification

BrahMos is universal missile i.e. it can be launched from air, land, water and underwater. Its air launched version is slightly different from surface or subsurface version. The weight of Land version of BrahMos is 3,000 kg and that of air launched version is 2500kg.

In BrahMos-NG, the BrahMos Aerospace has reduced the overall weight of the missile by half of the existing BrahMos missile. With the reduced weight the land version will weigh ~1500 kg and air launched version will be between ~1200 kg. The dimension of the missile also very be reduced with length being 5m and diameter of 50 cm.

The missile is going to have range of 300 km and speed of Mach 3.5. The speed and range of the BrahMos NG makes it powerful stand-off weapon and it will also be very effective in SEAD mission.

A mock-up of LCA Tejas with two BrahMos-NG under its wing pylon

SU-30 MKI will be able to carry 5 BrahMos NG missiles and LCA Tejas will be able carry two of them. Each BrahMos-NG missile will cost approximately $2.6 million.

Brahmos aerospace has also planned to make Brahmos NG capable of being launched from torpedo tube. This will greatly boost the fire power of Indian Navy’s submarine fleet and negate the need of VLS in P75I. The existing Kalvari class submarines will also be able to launch the BrahMos NG from its existing 533 mm torpedo tubes. At present the Kalvari class submarines can launch Exocet SM39 anti-ship missile with a range of just 50 km.

Reports from Russian Media TASS

As per the reports from Russia media outlet TASS, the trials of the air-based version of the next generation BrahMos missile (BrahMos NG) will begin in late 2024. The CMD of BrahMos Aerospace has also said that by December 2025 – the middle of 2026 we will have this smaller missile which we can fit on any aircraft. The missile he was referring to was BrahMos NG and it is planned to be integrated with SU-30 MKI, Tejas and Mig-29. In the future, the company intends to offer this version of the missile to the Russian Aerospace Forces as well.