The NDA government has cleared a fourth BrahMos regiment for the Indian Army at a cost of over ₹4,300 crore at the 4,057-km-long Line of Actual Control of Arunachal Pradesh to counter the security threat posed by massive Chinese military infrastructure at the border.
Recently, at least 20 to 25 Chinese troops had entered into the demilitarised area in Barahoti pastures in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, besides flying its helicopters in the Indian air space for over five minutes.
Here is all you need to know about the 4th BrahMos regiment of the Army, summed in 10 points:
- The regiment consists of around 100 missiles, five mobile autonomous launchers on 12X12 heavy-duty trucks and a mobile command post, among other hardware and software.
- The new regiment is for mountainous terrain such as the north-eastern states or Jammu and Kashmir, facing China and Pakistan respectively.
- From 2007 onwards, the Army has progressively inducted three regiments of BrahMos with largely Block-I and II missiles developed to hit a specific small target with a low radar cross-section in a cluttered environment
- The latest Block-III “steep-dive” version will now be have “a combined high-low trajectory” to evade enemy defence systems.
- The new variant of BrahMos “can take a steep dive up to 75 degrees. Defence scientists are already working on achieving a 90-degree steep-dive capability.
- The latest ₹4,300 crore contract for the advanced version of the missile with Indo-Russian company, BrahMos Aerospace, will take the total orders placed for BrahMos so far to over ₹31,000 crore.
- BrahMos is a fire and forget missile with a range of 290-km and has “nine times more kinetic energy than sub-sonic missiles” for greater destructive potential.
- BrahMos can attack surface targets by flying to it as low as 10 metres above the ground to prevent radar detection and can touch Mach 2.8 speeds.
- BrahMos will take about five years to develop the hypersonic cruise missile that can travel at Mach 5 speeds.
- The Navy has already installed the missile on 10 frontline warships, including the latest stealth destroyers and frigates.
