NEW DELHI, February 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace President Sivathanu Pillai has been awarded the Russian Order of Friendship.

BrahMos missiles are a bilateral project, the success of which is a result of efforts on both sides. But this is not the end of friendship, which will grow stronger, Pillai said after receiving the order from Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is co-chair of the Russian-Indian Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Science, Technical and Cultural Cooperation.

Rogozin said the order had been awarded to Pillai for his big contribution to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation with Russia and the development of multifaceted scientific and cultural ties.

Pillai is confident that the BrahMos missile project can be considered successful only if the missiles are bought by both Russia and India. Now only India has been buying them. He said this issue is discussed at different levels and expressed hope that Russia would make a positive decision.

The overall value of BrahMos missile contracts with India’s Navy, Air Force and Army has reached 4.2 billion U.S. dollars and may increase to 7.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.

Last year, India successfully tested a BrahMos supersonic missile from an underwater platform. This was the first time that any supersonic cruise missile was launched vertically from a submerged platform.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from the Indian Navy’s newest guided missile frigate INS Tarkash off the coast of Goa in late May 2013.

The missile performed high-level “C” manoeuvre at pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target. The surface-to-surface missile, having a range of 290-km, was test launched from the Russian-built Project 1135.6 class warship.

BrahMos cruise missiles have been adopted by India's Army and the Navy’s surface ships. The Indian Air Force has also ordered a batch of land-based missiles. Work is also underway to adapt the missile to Su-30MKI planes used by the Indian Air Force.

BrahMos is an acronym of the two rivers: Brahmaputra in India and Moskva in Russia.

When visiting the headquarters of the Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Limited that makes supersonic cruise missiles, the chief of the Russian Army General Staff said that the joint venture made “reliable missiles that have few matches in the world.”

“A state with such weapons has a serious combat capability,” he said.

The joint venture has designed a new version of the supersonic cruise missile of the same name that can be launched from submarines.

“The missile is ready for use from submarines,” Alexander Maksichev, managing co-director of the joint venture, told Itar-Tass.

The missiles are intended for use aboard the Scorpion-type submarine, for which the Indian Navy has placed orders in France.

The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos has designed a new version of the supersonic cruise missile of the same name that can be launched from submarines.

“We have proposed that these submarines be armed with BrahMos missiles too,” Maksichev said.

The BrahMos missile has a flight range of up to 290 kilometres and is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kilograms. The missile can cruise at a maximum speed of 2.8 Mach.