BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russia defence joint venture, has developed the capability to make hypersonic missiles and will roll out its first such missile in five to six years, the company’s CEO and managing director Atul Rane said on Monday.
He was speaking at an event to mark the 'Silver Jubilee Year celebrations of India's most successful, cutting-edge military partnership programmes that has produced the world's best, fastest and most powerful modern precision strike weapon, the BrahMos missile.
Starting on June 12 to mark 21 glorious years of the maiden supersonic launch of the BrahMos missile, the 'Silver Jubilee Year' celebrations of the company will culminate on February 12, 2023, on the 'BrahMos Raising Day'.
Charting out the course for the next phase of its ambitious journey, the JV has started work on its new, state-of-the-art BRAHMOS manufacturing centre to come up at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh as part of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) Project.
On June 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the initiation of all major industrial projects under the UPDIC, including the setting up of the dedicated BrahMos facility which would design, develop and produce the highly advanced BRAHMOS Next-Generation (NG) weapon system.
BrahMos Aerospace has received around 80 hectares of land in Uttar Pradesh for the establishment of the new manufacturing centre with an initial investment of Rs 300 crore. The company plans to complete all manufacturing-related work for the new facility by the mid of 2024. Once fully operational, this dedicated facility will produce 80-100 BrahMos systems every year.
Work on the BRAHMOS-NG missile has also progressed and it would be ready for serial production in the next three to five years. The BRAHMOS-NG manufacturing centre would further bolster the Missile Industry Consortium in India and help galvanise the defence ecosystem for high-end missile technology. It would also position India as one of the top-ranking defence technology centres in the world.
The supersonic cruise missile has been successfully operationalised in all three Services of the Indian Armed Forces.
On January 28, BrahMos Aerospace signed a historic contract with the Republic of the Philippines to deliver a shore-based anti-ship BRAHMOS system to the Philippine Navy. As a proud flag-bearer of 'Make-in-India' and 'Design-in-India', BrahMos Aerospace is now going to 'Make-for-the-World' -a first for the JV entity and a proud first for India.
The multi-million-dollar BrahMos export deal has paved the way for India's aspiration to emerge as a top-notch military manufacturer and exporter in the world in the next few years.
