Navy wants Brahmos in submarines

NEW DELHI: When the Army receives its first consignment of the Brahmos, the world’s most eagerly awaited cruise missile today, the Navy too, will be pressing ahead with its preparations to mount the supersonic cruise missiles on its submarines.

The Brahmos, which has the distinction of being the world’s only supersonic cruise missile, is the first surface-to-surface precision strike system in the country that can hit targets within 300 kilometres.

The missile has a range of 290 kilometres. Brahmos Corporation, the Indo-Russian joint venture that has produced the weapons, will formally hand them over to the Army at the Brahmos missile complex in the Delhi cantonment.

The Navy, too, on its part has started the process of incorporating the weapon in its own systems. Designers are drawing up plans to mount the missile on a Kilo Class submarine. A kilo class submarine is a conventional diesel submarine that was first inducted into the Army two decades ago. “If this project works out, we will fit the missile in other Kilo class submarines,” a source in the Navy said. Apart from the submarines, the Brahmos might find use in Sukhoi fighters and the IL-38, the long-range maritime aircraft with the Navy.

The Navy has already given Brahmos Corporation the requisite permission to equip the submarine with the cruise missile. If the undertaking succeeds, it would hand the Navy a huge advantage in enhancing its underwater firing capabilities. Work on integrating the cruise missile in the submarine is expected to be completed by the middle of 2009.

At first, Brahmos Corporation had suggested that it mount the missile on an Amour Class Russian submarine — a new line of conventional submarines for the Navy. But when the Navy showed its unwillingness to accept Amour as the second line of conventional submarines (French-made Scorpenes are the first of the two lines the Navy wants to develop), the firm had to refit the missile on one of the 10 Kilo Class submarines owned by the Navy.

A source in the Army said that refitting the submarine with missile launchers, from which the Brahmos will take off, would become possible once they are slightly elongated. They are optimistic that two Navy warships would be able to flaunt vertically-launched Brahmos versions by the end of the year.

As part of its preparations for inducting the Brahmos, the Army would be incorporating three batteries, four road-mobile launchers, a mobile command post and Tatra vehicles. A total of 31 light artillery regiments would be downsized to create the Brahmos missile regiment, a source said.

The Army presently has regiments of Prithvi missiles that can strike targets up to 150 kilometres, the Agni-I which can batter targets in the 800 kilometre range and the Agni-II missiles which can attack a target within 2,000 kilometres. But none of these systems can boast of the accuracy with which the Brahmos can strike.