Cruising along

The Indian Army begins to be equipped with the world's only supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos.

WHEN President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam handed over replicas of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles mounted on a mobile launcher to Chief of the Army Staff General J.J. Singh in NewDelhi on June 21 and a beaming Dr. Sivathanu Pillai watched from close by, it was a proud moment for the three men. After receiving the replica, Gen. J.J. Singh said he felt honoured that the Indian Army was being equipped with the most potent missile system in the world.

For Kalam, the handing-over ceremony had special significance because it was he and Dr. Herbert A. Yefremov, the world's foremost missile technologist, who were the architects of the Indo-Russian joint venture created to design, develop and market this supersonic cruise missile. For Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and managing director of the joint venture, it was a fulfilling moment because he had worked hard to ensure that the missile would go from "the mind to the market" in six years. Though originally designed for coastal defence (land to ship), under Sivathanu Pillai's leadership, it was reinvented for two more roles: for the Navy (ship-to-ship attack) and for the Army (land-to-land attack).

The handing over signified the start of the delivery of the BrahMos missile to the Army. The missile has already been inducted into the Navy, and several of its ships are equipped with it. Importantly, within six years of the first launch of BrahMos, in June 2001, it has gone into serial production in India.

BrahMos is a remarkable success story of a joint venture between India and Russia in a high-technology defence product. Today, these are only two countries in the world that have supersonic cruise missiles in their inventory. Even the United States has only a subsonic cruise missile, called Tomahawk.

By the late 1990s, India had reached certain milestones in its Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), and it was necessary to think beyond Agni, Agni II, Prithvi (all surface-to-surface missiles), Trishul and Akash (surface-to-air missiles) and Nag (anti-tank missile). Warfare was dominated by cruise missiles, but all the ones available in the world were subsonic, flying at velocities less than that of sound. So when India's missile technologists thought of new programmes, two things came to their minds. One was that India needed missiles that cruised at supersonic speeds so that it would have an edge over other countries. Besides, India needed to develop a system that was purely tactical and could cause precise destruction. The logical step after the development of the Agni strategic missiles was the development of tactical, supersonic cruise missiles.

Since developing the technology on its own to produce a supersonic cruise missile would have taken many years and India would in the meanwhile have lost its leadership in this field, it decided to go in for a joint venture. Russia was the preferred choice because it was a reliable friend. More importantly, Russia had a ramjet engine, which was available for configuration into a missile system. India had also earlier worked with NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPO-M), a state-owned space-missile enterprise of the Russian Federation, which was the world leader in cruise missiles.

Sivathanu Pillai said, "We did a feasibility study, and it emerged that it was possible to put together the two countries' technologies and money to develop a new system which would enable us to make a supersonic cruise missile. This was the birth of the system, BrahMos, which is totally supported by both countries." BrahMos signifies the confluence of the Brahmaputra and the Moskva rivers. Kalam, who was then Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, and N.V. Mikhaiklov, the Russian Federation's first Deputy Prime Minister, signed in Moscow on February 12, 1998, the intergovernmental agreement that led to the formation of the joint venture company called BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It was set up with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and the NPO-M as partners and came into being with an authorised capital of $250 million, with 50.5 per cent coming from India and 49.5 per cent from the Russian Federation. Dr. Alexandre Dergachev became chairman of BrahMos Aerospace and Sivathanu Pillai its CEO and MD.

Russia's strength lay in propulsion (engine). It had already mastered the liquid ramjet technology needed for cruise missiles. The system is called ramjet because the engine collects the air (oxidiser) it needs from the atmosphere during flight, rams it inside and the propellants burn in the combustion chamber. India's strong points were in guidance, control and software. Industrial complexes were set up in both countries to manufacture and assemble the components. In India, the BrahMos Integration Complex (BIC) came up in Hyderabad. All missile subsystems, fabricated at various work centres in India and Russia, are flown to the BIC, where BrahMos is integrated and checked out. The BIC consists of facilities for mechanical and electrical integration and for filling of fuel, magazine storage, and so on.

The first flight of BrahMos took place from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea, near Balasore in Orissa, on June 12, 2001. It took off vertically from the ground and then flew horizontally at Mach 2, and had a range of 290 km. The flight was a brilliant success.

The second launch, on April 28, 2002, was also fired from the ground but in a ship-launch configuration in an inclined mode. The last launch in April 2007 was the 14th. The launches included missiles fired in an inclined mode from INS Rajput towards decommissioned vessels and four launches of the Army variant. Of the launches for the Army, two took place at Pokhran in Rajasthan. The launches have taken place in cyclonic weather at Chandipur and when the mercury sizzled at 52 Celsius at Pokhran.

Future wars will be network-centric, defence strategists say. This means that all the deployable assets and weapon systems of a country will be integrated into a network to ensure optimal use of its weapons for maximum destruction of the enemy's assets.

BrahMos is a "universal", that is, a versatile missile. It is called a cruise missile because it cruises at a constant altitude throughout its flight. According to Sivathanu Pillai, the versatility of BrahMos is eminently suited to network-centric warfare. "There is no defence against BrahMos," he said. "It has speed, power and precision. Its speed comes from its propulsion, its power from the kinetic energy and its precision from its guidance systems. It has the advantage of all the three, and it can be launched simultaneously from multiple platforms such as silos, trucks, ships, submarines and aircraft, targeting enemy assets and inflicting destruction in a short time."

It is launched from a canister, which acts as a storage-cum-transportation container. It can fly at velocities of Mach 2.8 to Mach 3. It is a two-stage vehicle that has a solid propellant booster in the first stage and a ramjet system powered by liquid propellants (aviation kerosene) in the second stage. The missile is nine metres long, has a diameter of 70 centimetres, and weighs 3.9 tonnes with the canister (without the canister, it weighs three tonnes). It has a maximum range of 290 km and can carry conventional warheads weighing 300 kg.

It has other versatile features. The Army version can take off vertically and then fly horizontally. It can be fired in an inclined mode from ships. It can have different trajectories. It can fly at different velocities at various altitudes. When it flies above sea level, its speed is Mach 2. It can fly up to Mach 3 at higher altitudes because the air density at such altitudes is low. It has different ranges too.

BrahMos was originally conceived as an anti-ship missile for coastal defence, to be fired from the shore towards enemy ships. The first two launches took place from the shore at Chandipur out into the Bay of Bengal. The Navy, impressed with these two successes, wanted it to be launched from a ship. That soon became a priority for BrahMos Aerospace. INS Rajput was identified as the vessel that could be fitted with BrahMos. There are critical differences between a land-launch and a ship-launch: On land, there is a stable platform, but a ship keeps moving, and rough waters could cause the vessel to pitch and roll. The motion of the enemy vessel has to be taken into account as well (Frontline, March 14, 2003). When the missile is fired from a ship, the launch platform will shake violently, but this should not harm the vessel's safety.

According to Sivathanu Pillai, a ship-launch should also deploy what is called "transfer alignment". In the ship-fired version, the point of launch changes because the ship is in motion. "So the ship's reference should be known to the missile. The ship is equipped with a navigation system and this information is transferred to the missile (its on-board computers) and the missile knows where it is. This is called transfer alignment," he said.

With four successful ship-launches, BrahMos Aerospace focussed its attention on developing a land-to-land version for the Army. This meant the missile should be mobile. A truck should be able to transport it and should also be equipped with a launch platform. The Army version has two sophisticated complexes: a Mobile Command Post (MCP) and a Mobile Autonomous Launcher (MAL).

The MCP, with its bank of computers, forms the nerve-centre of operations that leads to the launch of the missile. It is the MCP that receives information about the target, and if there are several targets to attack, it decides which target to home in on. The MCP also controls multiple launches of the missile. All decision-making takes place at the MCP, which is connected to the MAL.

The MAL is essentially a cross-country multi-axle Tatra truck with a pod of three BrahMos missiles. The truck can turn at sharp angles even when loaded with the weight of the missiles. The MAL has a crew of three, two drivers and the third person manning the fire control system (FCS.) The FCS controls the firing/launching of the missile. The MAL also has computers with sophisticated software, VSAT (very small aperture terminal), and so on. It has an antenna for communication with the VSAT. The information about the target goes from the MCP to the FCS. The FCS decides the trajectory of the missile, depending on the target's position. The person manning the FCS then starts a series of operations, which include bringing the missiles to a vertical position, checking their health, and so on.

Sivathanu Pillai said, "The missile has an accurate inertial navigation system. It has a GPS [global positioning system], which takes its reference from GLONASS [GLObal NAvigation Satellite System]. It has a seeker, which can help it home in on a target. These three will ensure that the missile will go to a target."

On the Indian side, a number of public and private sector industries have contributed to the making of BrahMos. Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML) designed and developed the Tatra vehicle. Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), both located in Hyderabad, designed, developed and integrated the software for the control, communications, computer and information system in the MAL. Rajat Pal, Scientist, DRDL, is proud of his organisation's contribution to the building of the MAL. "The computers and the software used in the MAL are of international standard," he said.

Other organisations that made the BrahMos project a reality include the DRDO (for system engineering and missile integration), ECIL, DRDL and BEML (for building and equipping the MAL and the MCP), L&T, Mumbai (for building the composite airframe and canister launcher), Data Patterns, Chennai (for the FCS), Ananth Tech, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. On the Russian side, they include NPO-M, Moscow, for system engineering, missile integration and flight-testing; Strela, Orenburg, for the ramjet engine; Mashinostroetel, Perm, for the booster; and Iskra, Perm, for the solid propellants.

BrahMos Aerospace is now working on the missile's submarine launch and Air Force versions. "The missile is totally ready for launch from the submarine," Sivathanu Pillai said. During a submarine launch the missile will be subjected to more pressure than during a land launch. The missile should not, therefore, buckle. "The missile should continue to fire till it breaks out of the water medium. When it breaks out of the water and surfaces into the air, problems with regard to the control of the missile will arise. They should be taken care of. After the missile travels some distance, the booster should fire. The most difficult thing to handle is underwater pressure. The inertial navigation system, on-board avionics and communication system should work under pressure," he added.

Work on the missile version for the Indian Air Force will be ready in two years. The avionics and instrumentation have been developed and drop-tests conducted. By the end of 2009, Sukhoi-30MI (Mark India) will take to the sky fitted with BrahMos.

Kalam would like BrahMos Aerospace to work on its hypersonic and reusable versions. He told the audience on June 21: "The time has come for BrahMos Aerospace to work on the mark-II version of BrahMos so that it will still be the market leader in hypersonic cruise missiles. In the emerging network-centric warfare scenario, the fast deployment of hypersonic missile systems will be necessary to maintain our force-level supremacy. I visualise long-range hypersonic cruise missiles not only delivering payloads but also returning to base after the mission, leading to a reusable class of cruise missiles within the next decade. It is time that the three services worked with the team in BrahMos Aerospace to evolve the QR [qualitative requirements] for such a system in a time-bound manner."