NEW DELHI, September 8. /TASS/. The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace plans to begin autonomous testing of an upgraded, lightweight BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile next year, Alexander Maksichev, the Russian managing director of the joint venture, told TASS.
"We are currently at the working design stage, which we will complete next year, and then we will move on to autonomous tests," he said, explaining that it is too early to discuss the timing of flight tests.
As previously reported, the BrahMos-NG missile, with a flight range of over 300 kilometers, will differ from the original version by more than half in weight – 1.29 tons compared to 2.9 tons for its predecessor. Company management indicates that production of the new missile can be expected in three to five years.
The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile developed by the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace. It was jointly developed by Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The first trial launch took place in 2001. Various versions of the missile have been commissioned by India’s navy, air force, and ground forces. BrahMos Aerospace is headquartered in New Delhi. The name BrahMos is a combination of the names of the Brahmaputra River in India and the Moskva River in Russia.