More Sukhois to be armed with BrahMos
Indian Air Force is going to arm more Sukhoi-30MKI jets with the precision-strike BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, whose range has been extended from 290 km to 450 km, even as a blueprint is also being drawn to indigenously upgrade all the 260 such Russian-origin fighters in the combat fleet.
Impressed with the first test of 450-km BrahMos from a Sukhoi-30MKI jet in the Bay of Bengal in May, IAF plans to send another 20-25 jets for the structural, electrical, mechanical and software modifications required to carry the 2. 5-tonne missile to defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd(HAL).
“TheseSukhois will be in addition to the original 40 jets earmarked for BrahMos missiles. Thirty-five of the first 40 Sukhois with 290-km BrahMos have been delivered back to IAF by HAL,” a source said.
IAF considers the combination of Sukhois, which have a combat radius of almost 1,500-km without midair refueling, and the 450-km range conventional (non-nuclear) BrahMos missiles to be a deadly weapons package with strategic reach.
These air-to-ground BrahMos missiles can carry out pinpoint strikes on high-value military targets, underground nuclear bunkers, command-andcontrol centres on land or aircraft carriers and other warships on the high seas.
With the Army, Navy and Air Force inking contracts worth around Rs 38,000 crore over the years for BrahMos missiles, which fly almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2. 8, a 800-km missile variant is also in the works, as was first reported by TOI.
The 272 twin-seat Sukhois (10 have crashed), with the bulk of them being licensed produced by HAL at an overall cost upwards of $12 billion from Russia, constitute the backbone of the existing IAF combat fleet.
Technical parameters for the major Sukhoi upgrade are now being refined. “We have decided this upgrade will be done indigenously with a plethora of indigenously-designed weapons, electronic warfare systems and the like. We are looking at upgrading 84 Sukhois in the first tranche,” IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said.
