A Brahmos missile being test fired
KUALA LUMPUR: The story bellow from Bernama is self-explanatory. Malaysian Defence had speculated some months back on the impending purchase of the Indo-Russia cruise missile. And I believe it will not be limited to the air-launched version either.
India Ready To Sell Supersonic Brahmos Missile To Malaysia
General
October 04, 2007 16:11 PM
NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (Bernama) — India is keen to sell to Malaysia the supersonic Brahmos missile
that is being produced under a joint venture with Russia.
Brahmos Aerospace Private Ltd’s chief executive officer Dr A. Sivathanu Pillai said India
would only sell the sophisticated missiles to countries that are friendly and those considered as strategic
partners in India’s security equation.
“We have made a list of countries which are interested in our product and those with
the defence budget to spend. In that list, definitely Malaysia is one of them because we have
seen the interest shown by the country at our exhibitions in Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
“So we are in a good understanding but this is not sufficient. What is needed is
that the government of Malaysia should write officially to the government of
India to form a strategic partnership,” he told Bernama in an interview at Brahmos’ headquarters here.
Indian and Russian scientists have designed and developed the cruise missile
which is said to be three times faster and more accurate in hitting enemy targets than the American-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
The missile, with the acronym Brahmos derived from India’s Brahamputra
River and Moscow River, comes from a joint venture between India’s
reputable Defence Research and Development Organisation and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
The project had started in 1998 and the first missile was test-fired in 2001.
Following that, at least six other tests were carried out without any flaw discovered.
The versatile missile can be launched from multiple platforms —
land, sea, sub-sea and air. It can also be installed on the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet.
Malaysia had purchased 18 Russian-made Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft in 2003.
The Brahmos missile, primarily an anti-ship missile, is capable of carrying warheads
of up to 660 pounds and easily reach enemy target at a distance of 290 kilometres.
“We sell weapons to create strategic relationships, and both countries become
very dependent when an important weapon is sold. I sincerely hope that
Brahmos is going to build very strong relationships between India and
many other countries,” Pillai said.
Industry sources said that besides Malaysia, countries like Chile, Kuwait,
South Africa and the United Arab Emirates have expressed interest in the
Indian-Russian-made missile.
At least 1,000 of these high supersonic missiles are expected to be sold to
friendly countries and the first export could be next year.
— BERNAMA
Will we see the contract signing during the upcoming LIMA? Time to wait and see. Malaysian Defence however disagreed with the reference to theTomahawk. What ever the advantages of the Brahmos, it has yet to be fired in anger unlike the Tomahawk.
Never ever try to compare an untested weapon system over one which had been tested in the real thing.
-Malaysian Defence