India will have its first hypersonic missile in five to six years: BrahMos Aerospace CEO

New Delhi, Jun 13: India will have its first hypersonic missile in five to six years, Atul Rane, CEO and MD, BrahMos Aerospace said on Monday.

Speaking at an event over the commencement of 'Silver Jubilee Year' celebration (1998-2023), he said, "BrahMos Aerospace is capable of making hypersonic missiles. In five to six years, we will be able to have our first hypersonic missile by BrahMos,"

To mark the incredible journey of one of India's most successful, cutting-edge military partnership programmes coinciding with India's 75 years of Independence, India-Russia defence Joint Venture BrahMos Aerospace on Monday commenced the 'Silver Jubilee Year' celebrations (2022-2023), ANI reported.

The celebration, which started on June 12 to mark the 21 glorious years of the maiden supersonic launch of BrahMos, will culminate on February 12, 2023, on the 'BrahMos Raising Day'.

In its two-decade journey, BrahMos Aerospace has achieved a lot of feats and many "firsts" in the country. Charting out the course for the next phase of this ambitious journey, the JV has started work on its new, state-of-the-art BRAHMOS manufacturing centre to come up in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh as part of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) Project.

On June 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the initiation of all major industrial projects under the UPDIC, including the setting up of the dedicated BrahMos facility which would design, develop and produce the highly advanced BRAHMOS Next-Generation (NG) weapon system.

With an initial investment of Rs 300 crore, BrahMos Aerospace has received around 80 hectares of land in Uttar Pradesh for the establishment of the new manufacturing centre. The company plans to complete all manufacturing-related work for the new facility by the mid of 2024.
Once fully operational, this dedicated facility will produce 80-100 BrahMos systems every year. Work on the BRAHMOS-NG missile has also progressed and it would be ready for serial production in the next three to five years. The BRAHMOS-NG manufacturing centre would further bolster the Missile Industry Consortium in India and help galvanise the defence ecosystem for high-end missile technology.

It would also position India as one of the top-ranking defence technology centres in the world. The supersonic cruise missile has been successfully operationalised in all three Services of the Indian Armed Forces (in the Indian Navy in 2005; in the Indian Army in 2007; in Indian Air Force in 2020).