The BrahMos missile

A joint venture between Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is one of the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world. Named after the Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers, it is designed to provide the Indian and Russian armed forces with a versatile and highly lethal weapon capable of engaging land and sea targets with precision. Launched in the early 2000s, the missile is capable of being fired from land, sea, air, and even submarine platforms, making it a key asset in multi-dimensional warfare. Its propulsion system, which uses a solid-fuel rocket booster for initial acceleration followed by a ramjet engine for sustained supersonic flight, enables it to reach speeds of Mach 3, significantly reducing the time available for enemy defenses to react.

One of the key strengths of BrahMos is its versatility and adaptability across multiple platforms, including surface warships, submarines, aircraft, and land-based systems. The missile has a range of approximately 400 kilometers, although there have been efforts to extend this range further. Its ability to fly at extremely low altitudes, sometimes as low as 10 meters above the surface, makes it difficult to detect, while its high speed increases its penetration capabilities against hardened targets. With variants now available for air launch (BrahMos-A) and hypersonic developments underway, BrahMos continues to be a centerpiece of India’s strategic deterrence, particularly in the context of regional naval power dynamics in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.