Brahmos to Fund IISC-Moscow Aviation Institute Hypersonic Missile Project

Moscow, August 17: Brahmos Aerospace has launched a project to fund the development of a hypersonic missile, capable of flying at Mach 7, as a partnership between the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). An agreement to this effect was signed at the MAKS 2011 show here yesterday between Brahmos, MAI, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology and the Russian partner in Brahmos, NPOM Machinista. Brahmos will initially fund $1 million each to IISC and MAI. The new missile, capable of flying at more than twice the speed of the existing Brahmos missile, will need new technologies in materials, electronics, guidance, propulsion and warhead which the joint project is expected to develop. The agreement was signed by Brahmos CEO, Dr. Shivathanu Pillai, MAI Director Prof. Gerashenko Anatoly and Furshenko Andrei, the Minister for Science and Technology, Russian Federation. Giving details of the agreement, Brahmos marketing head, Praveen Pathak said the funding could be increased depending upon the progress achieved by both institutes who would be closely cooperating on the project. There will be an exchange of scientists and engineers between IISC and MAI and the intellectual property of the research will be the property of Brahmos. The project aims to develop the next generation cruise missile based on scramjet technology. Separately, the Indian Defence Research and Development Laboratry (DRDL) is working on a scramjet for the Brahmos missile. The engine will be integrated into the airframe, guidance and warhead to be developed by the IISC-MAI partnership. Further, the Indo-Russian Joint Commission on Brahmos partnership has approved a list of countries to which the missile could be exported, Praveen Pathak said adding that the meeting held in June 2011 gave the go-ahead for international marketing of the missile to non-NATO countries.