Brahmos missile

• India is set to export BrahMos supersonic missile systems to Philippines in next 10 days.
• The venture, valued at USD 375 million, marks DRDO’s largest-ever defence contract with a foreign nation.

ABOUT BRAHMOS MISSILE

• The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is a joint venture between DRDO and Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace.
• It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia).
• It can be launched from land, sea, and air.
• BRAHMOS is 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.
• It operates on ‘Fire and Forget Principle’.
• Its cruising altitude could be up to 15 km and terminal altitude is as low as 10 meters.
• The missile has flight range of up to 290-km with supersonic speed all through the flight.
  • The extended-range variant of the missile can strike land and sea targets at a maximum range of 400 to 500 kilometers
• It is said to be one of the most successful missile programs in the world.
• The Indian Army has integrated multiple BrahMos regiments into its arsenal since 2007.