New Delhi, June 21, 2007 (Thursday) – President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who is also Supreme Commander of the Armed  Forces, has  handed over a replica of the mobile autonomous launchers of the BrahMos land system to Chief of the Army Staff Gen JJ Singh today.

It is a remarkable development in the defence history of the country, in general and Indian Army, in particular, just  because it  virtually commenced the function of the Supersonic Cruise Missiles to the Indian Army. In fact, it is a great day for the Indian Army and the entire Army jawans may feel proud of this great induction in their arsenal.

The missile is launched from a Transport Launch Canister (TLC) which also acts as storage and transport container.

The Government had approved induction of three regiments of BrahMos Missile system in the Indian Army out of which the Army had initially placed the requirement for one regiment. The delivery of this system was to start from July 2008. However, for early operationalisation of the missile system, the delivery of one Mobile Command Post and two Mobile Autonomous Launchers has been advanced by one year.

The function was attended among others by the Defence Minister Shri A K Antony, the Minister of State for Defence Shri M M Pallam Raju, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri Shri M Natrajan, the Ambassador of Russia to India Mr. Vyacheslav Trubnikov and the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace Dr. A Sivathanu Pillai.

Speaking on the occasion, the President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam said we have to aggressively market this world-class product which will have a market shelf life of not more than 5 years. He said there will be competitors who would be developing contemporary products which will be detrimental to the market leadership. ‘No smart developer can afford to lose the competitive edge which he has generated and hence increasing the orders and continuously improving the products have to be aggressively pursued’, he said.

The President said, time has come for BrahMos Aerospace to work on Mark-II version of BrahMos so that it will still be the market leader in hyper-sonic cruise missiles. ‘In the emerging network centric warfare scenario, the fast deployment of hypersonic missile systems will be necessary to maintain our force level supremacy.

I visualize long range hypersonic cruise missiles not only delivering pay loads but also returning to the base after the mission, leading to re-usable class of cruise missiles within the next decade. It is time that the three services work with the team of BrahMos Aerospace to evolve the QR for such a system in a time bound manner’, he said.

Describing the BrahMos joint venture programme between Indian and Russia as a ‘great template’ for international cooperation, the President said it combined the core competence of the two countries for realizing a high-technology product in an extremely competitive global defence market with minimum investment from each side.

The President also handed over 61 documents relating to operation and maintenance of each system of BrahMos to Gen. J J Singh.

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a message on the occasion described the BrahMos system as one of the most advanced supersonic cruise missiles comparable to the best in the world and said, it is an excellent model of high technology cooperation between India and Russian Federation.

The Defence Minister Shri A K Antony said that the induction of BrahMos weapon system will catapult India with the most powerful supersonic cruise missile which can precisely hit the target. He said the capabilities of the missile system which have been proved through a series of successful flight trials, will bolster the Indian Army and enhance the defence preparedness of the nation. ‘In the changing face of the war theatre, induction of BrahMos and similar high-technology systems will play a commanding role in protecting the nation’s interests’.

 Full Story: http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3345