BANGALORE, February, 19. /TASS/. The first Su-30MKI fighter armed with the air-based version of the BrahMos-A supersonic cruise missile has been solemnly handed over to the Indian Air Force at the Aero India 2015 exhibition in Bangalore with the participation of the heads of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited company and of the Russian-Indian company BrahMos Aerospace.

The first test launches of the upgraded missile will take place in March.

The air-launched version of the BhaMos missile is 500 kg lighter and half a meter shorter than its sea-launched version for successful integration with the fighter.

BrahMos a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase. Stealth technology and guidance system with advanced embedded software provides the missile with special features.

The missile has flight range of up to 290-km with supersonic speed all through the flight, leading to shorter flight time, consequently ensuring lower dispersion of targets, quicker engagement time and non-interception by any known weapon system in the world.

In October 2012, the Indian government’s security committee approved the allocation of $1.1 billion for the purchase of 200 BrahMos-A missiles to be installed on Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighters.