Minggu, Januari 09, 2011

India authorises BrahMos integration facility

The Indian government has approved the expansion of BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Limited to set up an integration complex for the BrahMos missile on land owned by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Although funding has been provided for the new facility, construction cannot start until the land is made available. This can only be done once the IAF obtains suitable land for construction of housing for airmen, presumably to replace accommodation that will be demolished to make room for the planned new complex.

BrahMos is being developed under a collaborative project by Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya Machine Building Research and Production Centre and the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation to create a ramjet-powered cruise missile based on the Russian SS-N-26 (3M55 Oniks/Yakhont). Originally fielded as an anti-ship missile, BrahMos was later modified to serve as a land-attack cruise missile.

The most recent BrahMos firing was of a Block III+ version. This was test-fired on 3 December 2010 at the Interim Test Range in Orissa. The trial was intended as a further demonstration of the missile's ability to fly large-scale manoeuvres culminating in a steep dive onto the target.

0 komentar: