Russia Starts Work on Boosting BrahMos Missile's Range for India

Russian-Indian BrahMos short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missiles, currently produced for India's armed forces, may gain an extended range variant by 2019, the missile's Russian manufacturer said Friday.

REUTOV (Sputnik) — In late 2016, Indian Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre announced that India and Russia agreed to increase the range of BrahMos missiles by some 300 kilometers (185 miles), thus doubling its current range. Russian President Vladimir Putin also stated that the joint missile will be upgraded after agreements reached during a high-level bilateral summit in Goa last October.

"We are starting this work already, the first part will be research, and the second will be implementation. As usual, this will take two or three years… The range will be increased significantly. Mayby not several times by it will be notable," NPO Mashinostroyenia Director General Alexander Leonov told reporters.

​India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016, thus paving the way for boosting the range of its missiles. Russia, a member since the 1990s, could not supply missiles with a range of over 300 kilometers and with a payload of over 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) to India under conditions of the MTCR.

The BrahMos missiles, based on Russia's P-800 Oniks (Yakhont) cruise missile and produced jointly by NPO Mashinostroyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), can be launched from naval vehicles, including submarines, as well as aircraft and land-based launchers. The two-stage missile is armed with 200 and 300-kilogram warheads.