Air version of BrahMos Missile

Why in the News?

• Recently, the Air version of BrahMos was test-fired from Sukhoi 30 MKI supersonic fighter aircraft.

BrahMos 

• About:
  • Named after the Brahmaputra river of India and Moskva river of Russia.
  • BrahMos is a Joint Venture between India (DRDO) and Russia (NPOM) for the development, production and marketing of the supersonic cruise missile.
• Features:
  • It is a 2 stage missile with solid propellant (Stage 1) which gives it supersonic speed and liquid ramjet (Stage 2) increase its speed to Mach 3 in the cruise phase.
  • It has a flight range of 290km.
  • It operates on the ‘Fire and Forget’ principle i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.
  • It can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets.
  • They fly within the earth’s atmosphere and use jet engine technology.
  • They can be categorised according to size, speed(subsonic, supersonic, hypersonic), range, and the launch platform(land, aircraft, warship, submarine).

Source: TH