BrahMos Astra: Science of India

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Supersonic Cruise Missile

One of the significant technological breakthroughs of 2005 is the design, development and productionization of Supersonic Cruise Missile - BRAHMOS by an Indo-Russian joint venture. Today Brahmos is the first supersonic operational cruise missile in the world, which can be launched from multiple platforms such as ships, submarines, road mobile and silo, and with modifications from aircraft. This is indeed the result of technological co-operation resulting into operational system. The supersonic speed is achieved by a liquid ramjet engine and the guidance is achieved through powerful software embedded in the on-board avionics integrated with high performance sensors. The fast response Inertial guidance system and agile homing head enables the missile to achieve variety of trajectories flying at speed Mach 2.8 and destroy the target with high accuracy. The flight trajectories are simulated through a modular, digital and fully automated Fire Control System, which has advanced software for way point maneuvering, with supersonic maneuvering to provide high operational capabilities. This technological innovation is the trendsetter in the cruise missile field. The robust design of the missile, elaborate ground tests and simulation has ensured 100 percent success rate in all the flight tests conducted for the Armed Forces who have accepted the system for induction. This unique cruise missile can be launched at any angle from horizontal to vertical mode and has 3600 azimuth coverage.

Realization of such a state-of-the-art missile system in less than five years has been possible due to intensive technological co-operation and strength of the Joint Venture partners. The unique feature of the BRAHMOS are - high level of reliability, ease of operation, ability to conduct multiple launches simultaneously against multiple targets, long shelf life with minimum maintenance, meeting multi-service requirements from multiple platforms against different targets and automation with advanced software. In successful design, development, production and marketing of BRAHMOS missile, a new way of technology co-operation has emerged between India and other countries. BRAHMOS has put India in the world map by defence scientists
BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.

The acronym BrahMos is perceived as the confluence of the two nations represented by two great rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. At speeds of Mach 2.5 to 2.8, it is one of the world's fastest cruise missiles and is about three and a half times faster than the U.S.A's subsonic Harpoon cruise missile. A hypersonic version of the missile is also presently under development (Lab Tested with 5.26 Mach Speed).[2]

Though India had wanted the BrahMos to be based on a mid range cruise missile, namely P-700 Granit, instead Russia opted for the shorter range sister of the missile, P-800 Oniks, in order to comply with MTCR restrictions, to which Russia is a signatory. Its propulsion is based on the Russian Yakhont missile, and guidance has been developed by BrahMos Corp.
Development and Manufacture

The BrahMos has been developed as a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia under BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is named after two rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Moskva.

Since late 2004, the missile has undergone several tests from variety of platforms including a land based test from Pokhran desert, in which the 'S' maneuver at Mach 2.8 was demonstrated for the Indian Army and a launch in which the land attack capability from sea was demonstrated.[3]
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BrahMos claims to have the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 290 km.[1] The ship-launched and land-based missiles can carry a 200 kg warhead, whereas the aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A) can carry a 300 kg warhead. It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.[citation needed]

The high speed of the BrahMos likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise-missiles such as the Tomahawk.[4] Being twice as heavy and almost four times faster than the Tomahawk, the BrahMos has almost 32 times the initial kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missile (although it pays for this by having only 3/5 the payload and a fraction of the range despite weighing twice as much, suggesting a different tactical paradigm to achieve the objective).

Although BrahMos is primarily an anti-ship missile, it can also engage land based targets. It can be launched either in a vertical or inclined position and is capable of covering targets over a 360 degree horizon. The BrahMos missile has an identical configuration for land, sea, and sub-sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for added stability during launch. The BrahMos is currently being configured for aerial deployment with the Su-30MKI as its carrier.

Living with the Dragon

The U.S. military is getting ready to leave Iraq and Afghanistan. The next threat is much bigger.
Even the most casual observer seems to know that China’s economy has been growing at a roughly 10% annual rate for much of the past decade. Less recognized and arguably more important to the state of the world is the fact that China’s defense spending rose even faster than that — 12% or more a year between 2000 and 2009.
“The accelerating pace of China’s defense budget increases is driving countries in the region, as well as the U.S., to react to preserve a balance of power and stability,” says Jacqueline Newmyer, head of Long-Term Strategy Group, a Cambridge, Mass.-based defense consultant. “There is a real potential for arms races to emerge,” she adds. “While once we assumed we’d have access to areas to conduct anti-terrorism or anti-insurgency operations, now we’re compelled to think about preserving our ability to gain access to East Asia.”
Stephen Rosen, Harvard’s Beton Michael Kaneb professor of national security and military affairs, agrees. “All of us are clearly moving in that direction: We, the Japanese, the Indians. The only thing stalling it now are fiscal problems in Japan and the United States,” says the former advisor to one-time presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.

An Asian arms race is getting under way, driven by China.

Highlighting one of the fastest military buildups in history was China’s debut of its stealth jet just hours before the January visit to Beijing by outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The fighter will rival the U.S.’s F-22 Raptor, the world’s only operational stealth fighter. Larger than the F-22, with bigger fuel tanks, it will fly higher, faster and with less chance of detection. It’s one of many Chinese weapons that will impede the U.S. military’s ability to roam freely in the region.
The investment implications for China’s military modernization are only starting to take shape. But some U.S. companies like Lockheed Martin and United Technologies, facing big budget cuts as President Obama withdraws the U.S. from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, should get some offset from a new spending cycle worldwide. Like it or not, U.S. investors also are likely to hear more about Chinese companies such as Xi’an Aero-Engine (600893.China) and China Shipbuilding Industrial (601989.China) that are helping arm the country.
There’s likely to be a steady stream of new IPOs for Chinese defense companies that some Western investors may choose to avoid. The effects go beyond equities. The sounds of new sabers rattling will stir both the bond and currency markets.
THREE DECADES AFTER Vietnamese forces defeated China’s People’s Liberation Army in a border fight, Beijing’s military has the potential to rearrange geopolitical relationships — and military needs. In October, China conducted a joint air exercise with Turkey, its first with a NATO member. En route, its fighters refueled in Iran, the first time Iran allowed a foreign military to refill at its airfields since the Shah departed. Though they don’t constitute a far-flung naval power, China’s ships increasingly sail the world. In February, Beijing dispatched a frigate to Libya to evacuate 12,000 Chinese workers; it was able to arrive quickly because it was conducting antipiracy patrols off the Horn of Africa.
These exercises seem benign, but they haven’t escaped the notice of China’s regional foes, particularly in Taiwan. China has about 1,500 ballistic missiles, many of them trained at Taiwan. Indeed, incoming Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Senate this month that China “appears to be preparing for potential contingencies involving Taiwan, including possible U.S. military intervention.”
China contests its border with India, part of which analysts refer to as “Southern Tibet.” It also claims sovereignty over spits of land in the East China Sea, including the Senkaku islands between Taiwan and Japan. When Japan detained a Chinese trawler there last year, China banned rare-earth exports critical to high-tech manufacturing; Japan backed down. It also asserts authority over the Spratlys and Paracels — largely uninhabited atolls in the South China Sea that sit on the oil-rich continental shelf. Those claims are variously disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
China’s claims have raised tensions. As a result, Vietnam held live-fire naval training earlier this month in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the Philippines renamed the South China Sea the “West Philippine Sea,” and Taiwan said it would dispatch missile boats and tanks to the Spratlys. Most worrying, of course, is control of the sea lanes, through which valuable merchandise and energy shipments pass.
China maintains there’s no ill intent. “We do not want to use our money to buy equipment or advanced weapons to challenge the United States,” People’s Liberation Army Chief of Staff Chen Bingde said in a visit to Washington, D.C., last month. He noted the “gaping gap” between Chinese and U.S. military capability.
Many analysts are skeptical. Bradley Kaplan, a consultant to U.S. Pacific Command, says “Sun-tzu taught that the weaker power never demonstrates its intent or capability.”
Barron‘s has interviewed about two dozen experts on China’s arms buildup; they date its modernization to Desert Storm, when Chinese generals saw how quickly the U.S. and its allies vanquished Iraq. Then came the election of Lee Teng-hui, the first native Taiwanese to become the island nation’s president, which triggered the third Taiwan Strait crisis. The first Bush administration sold Taiwan 115 F-16 fighters. “In 1993, the PLA air force was in such poor shape that the F-16s made a difference,” says David Finkelstein, director of China Studies at Center for Naval Analyses.
China’s increasing wealth pays for a big budget. Following its decade of spending increases, China’s defense outlays are scheduled to rise another 12.7% in 2011 to 601 billion yuan (nearly $100 billion). That’s far less than the U.S.’s $708 billion defense budget — but the two are headed in opposite directions.
Early in its buildup, the mainland bought most of its armaments from Russia. In a move familiar to U.S. technology executives, it then began copying them, infuriating Moscow. Now it’s on the brink of creating indigenous combat vehicles and weapons. The J-20 stealth fighter, which is expected to be ready in 2018, appears to combine both advanced Russian and U.S. designs, says Roger Cliff, China expert at Rand Corp. This week, the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party, China is slated to float its first aircraft carrier, a Soviet design. Ukraine originally sold the ship to China to serve as a casino.
The biggest gains have been in China’s navy and in its strategic missile forces, called the Chinese Second Artillery Corps. Most of its arsenal is short- and medium-range missiles that can fly up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), within easy distance of U.S. bases in the Pacific. Increasingly, though, they are longer range, and the military’s new anti-ship missile would severely curtail the ability of U.S. carriers to deliver military aid to Asian allies.
China has more warships than its neighbors and as many attack submarines as the U.S. Aircraft carriers will allow China to use them as floating military bases, cheaper to move wherever and whenever it needs them.
The arms race could produce a mini-boom in Chinese equity offerings. At present, most of the biggest defense contractors are unlisted state-owned companies, but China wants to take them public. “The defense industry’s footprint in the broader capital markets — bond issues, bank loans, non-listed share transfers — is also growing,” says Tai Ming Cheung, a China expert at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and author of “Fortifying China: The Struggle to Build a Modern Defense Economy.”
Taking companies public “is a clear strategic priority” that also “promotes development of a dual-use economy” that serves military and civilian needs, says Cheung. Already, there are scores of dual-use firms listed just the way Boeing (BA) is in the U.S. Most of them are on the A-share market open to domestic investors and to qualified foreign institutions. Over the past five years, military stocks have far outgained the Shanghai Composite, though they have deflated this year. Right now, the group trades at price-earnings multiples of 25 to 30, low by historical standards for the sector. That’s still too high for Samantha Ho, investment director of Invesco Hong Kong and manager of the Invesco China Fund (AACFX), even though she believes China will spend much more on military and national defense.
“It’s certain military assets will be listed,” says Wang Tianyi, a defense analyst at Shanghai’s Orient Securities. Among the beneficiaries of the modernization, according to Wang: Xi’an Aero-engine, the only listed flagship company to produce engines for China’s fighter jets, and AVIC Heavy Machinery (600765.China), one of the listed arms of a state-run defense contractor.
Yang Liu, manager of the Atlantis China Fund, owns China Shipbuilding Industrial (601989.China), the country’s largest shipbuilder, which makes submarines and torpedoes and supplies the navy. “It’s the No. 1 navy-equipment marine maker,” says Liu. “One day China will build its own aircraft carrier. This company is very likely to produce one.”
Such sentiments have reset spending priorities among China’s neighbors. The Sendai earthquake temporarily silenced Japan, a harsh critic of China’s buildup.
Japanese self-defense forces “are clearly reoriented to China as opposed to Russia,” says Dean Cheng of the Heritage Foundation. Japan plans to add submarines and warships.

India is holding a competition for a supplier of 126 mid-range combat aircraft, its biggest defense deal. The short list includes the Eurofighter Typhoon, made by European Aeronautic Defence & Space (EAD.France); Alenia Aeronautica, a unit of Finmeccanica (FNC.Italy), and BAE Systems (BA.UK). Also contending is the Dassault Rafale, made by Dassault Aviation (AM.France). The fighters will be manufactured with the country’s Hindustan Aeronautics, the state-owned defense contractor that plans to go public this year. India also plans a three-carrier fleet.
Australia is having its largest military expansion since World War II, spending $275 billion over the next 20 years for submarines, frigates, destroyers and the F-35 joint strike fighter. Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam all plan to buy submarines.
OF COURSE, THE U.S. must respond as well. Incoming Defense Secretary Panetta has stressed that the U.S. “must be prepared” for adversaries armed with air-defense systems, long-range ballistic missiles, and anti-ship cruise missiles. That means it needs to modernize long-range strike and surveillance capabilities.
Expect to hear the term “AirSea Battle” more often. It’s a concept promoted by the independent think tank Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. This strategy would integrate U.S. air and naval forces to defeat enemies with sophisticated abilities to deny them access. The idea would be to develop ways to blind satellites and defend against or attack with long-range strikes. It’s a defense against both China and Iran.
“This will shift demand from counterinsurgency warfare toward more traditional systems like long-range strike aircraft and missiles, high-end naval forces and robust space and cyber capabilities,” says Jeffrey Roncka, managing partner at defense consultant Renaissance Strategic Advisors.
Thus, Panetta supports the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, with fighters capable of vertical takeoff and landing. To date the program has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. One big beneficiary is Lockheed Martin, although it’s also been blamed for the delays. Lockheed also produces the Aegis combat system. There also is support for a new, long-range bomber. Likely winners in this area include Northrop Grumman (NOC), which makes the B-2 bomber, and United Technologies, which owns Pratt & Whitney, whose PW9000 engine is a strong contender for the new bomber.
Long-range aircraft need air-to-air refueling; the Air Force has just awarded Boeing a $35 billion contract for air tankers. Another area of focus for is cyber-warfare.
China isn’t about to supplant U.S. military primacy. Its own estimate is that military modernization will take many years. One example of the gap: China has 71 submarines, yet fewer than a dozen are nuclear-powered, so the rest must resurface periodically; all of the U.S.’s 71 are nuclear-powered, with reactor fuel that lasts 20 years. That’s a big difference, but not an insurmountable one.
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