The trials of BrahMos-NG, a lighter and smaller variant of the existing air-launched BrahMos, will begin in late 2024, Atul Dinkar Rane, BrahMos Aerospace CEO and Managing Director, has said.

“We are working on that [BrahMos-NG] right now. We will start testing that by the end of next year.” Rane has been quoted as saying.

“We have to make it [missile] smaller,” he said, adding that the next generation of the BrahMos missile will be “half the weight”.

“So, I will say by December 2025 – the middle of 2026 we will have this smaller missile which we can fit on any aircraft,” Rane noted.

The air-launched version of the BrahMos has already been integrated with Su-30MKIs of the Indian Air Force, based at the Thanjavur Air Force Station in Tamil Nadu. Their presence in peninsular India and the integration of air-launched BrahMos gives these fighters the ability to hit targets as far as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

However, given the missile’s size and weight, a Su-30MKI can carry only one air-launched BrahMos — on its belly hardpoint. The number could be increased to three with a smaller and lighter BrahMos-NG, which will also be integrated with other fighters of the IAF, including the indigenous Tejas.

Equipped with three BrahMos missiles, the fighters will be able to strike multiple targets during a single operation.

Apart from reduced dimensions and weight, the new missile will also have advanced next-generation stealth and better effectiveness against electronic counter-countermeasure.