Thaindian News

Moscow, Oct 3 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s United Aircraft Corp (UAC) said Friday it would participate in the joint development of a new cruise missile with India only if a decision was taken to adapt the missile for service with the Russian Air Force.”Our participation will be certain only if we receive an official request to equip Russian fighters, the Su-30MKI in particular, with these missiles. So far we have not received such a request,” said UAC president Alexey Fyodorov.

UAC, a government-owned corporation, consolidates leading domestic aircraft construction companies and state assets engaged in the manufacture, design and sale of military, civilian, transport, and unmanned aircraft.

Russia and India announced in September plans to jointly develop a new BrahMos-2 hypersonic cruise missile.

The new missile will have a top speed of over Mach 5, which would make it virtually impossible to intercept.

At present, BrahMos Aerospace, a joint India-Russia venture, produces and markets BrahMos supersonic missiles, whose sea-based and land-based versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy.

The head of BrahMos Aerospace, Sivathanu Pillai, earlier said that the company had finished the development of the airborne version of the BrahMos missile and the Indian Air Force had chosen the SU-30MKI fighter as a trial platform for the missile.

The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. It can hit ground targets flying at an altitude as low as 10 meters and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

Analysts estimate that India could purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its armed forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to other countries during the same period.