What is BrahMos?

About BrahMos

• It is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, sea, and air.
• It has been developed by Brahmos Aerospace, a joint venture of India and Russia.
• It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia).
• Features:
  • It is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage, which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. The liquid ramjet, or second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in the cruise phase.
  • It is one of the fastest cruise missiles currently operationally deployed, with a speed of Mach 2.8, which is nearly three times more than the speed of sound.
  • It has a launch weight of 2,200-3,000 kg.
  • The extended-range variant of the missile can strike land and sea targets at a maximum range of 400 to 500 kilometers with supersonic speed all throughout the flight.
  • It operates on the "Fire and Forgets" principle, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
  • Its cruising altitude could be up to 15 km, and its terminal altitude is as low as 10 meters.
  • It carries a conventional warhead weighing 200 to 300 kg.
  • It is equipped with stealth technology designed to make it less visible to radar and other detection methods.
  • It has an inertial navigation system (INS) for use against ship targets, and an INS/Global Positioning System for use against land targets.

Q1) What are cruise missiles?

Cruise missiles are unmanned vehicles that are propelled by jet engines, much like an airplane. They can be launched from ground, air, or sea platforms. Cruise missiles remain within the atmosphere for the duration of their flight and can fly as low as a few meters off the ground. Flying low to the surface of the earth expends more fuel but makes a cruise missile very difficult to detect. 

Source: India to export BrahMos supersonic missile systems to Philippines in next 10 days