About 40 Russian-built Su-30MKI jets of Indian Air Force will be outfitted with BrahMos-A air-launched missiles in the next few years. This was stated by the Chief Designer of Russia’s Research and Production Association of Machine-Building Alexander Leonov. The BrahMos missile has been developed by Russia’s Research and Production Association of Machine-Building and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
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“As for the plans, the serial production has been launched and rearmament will be carried out, as our Indian colleagues have promised on many occasions. About 40 planes as the first batch will be equipped with BrahMos missiles. Of course, this will require some time, no less than two or three years, to re-equip the planes and produce air-launched BrahMos missiles,” the chief executive said.
Manager for Marketing at the Russia-India BrahMos Aerospace Joint Venture Praveen Pathak told TASS that the BrahMos-A air-launched missile, which the JV was developing, had hit a ground target for the first time during a test launch. In 2017, the BrahMos-A missile was test-launched for the first time, successfully hitting a naval target.
The chief executive of the Research and Production Association of Machine-Building said that the two test launches were “very important” as they had been held both against a naval and a ground target. “The universal nature of the BrahMos missile has been fully confirmed,” Leonov said.
