Tejas to get BrahMos missile

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
Bengaluru, February 22

India’s Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will be fitted with the next generation BrahMos missile that is lighter, travels faster and hit targets with precision at 300 km away.

“Work on the BrahMos NG for Tejas has started, and will take three years to finish,” said Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BrahMos, a joint venture with the Russians.

“The plane would not need any modifications,” Dr Mishra said adding that the missile can travel at the speed of 3.5 Mach. The existing version of missile does 2.8 Mach.  

The Tejas can take two of the missiles as this version of the Brahmos would be miniaturized and be just 1200 kg.  A dummy version of the BrahMos NG has been displayed at the Aero India here.

Earlier the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter was modified to carry a new version of the BrahMos. However, it could carry just one missile.   

The new missile would be such that it would enable Russian-made Sukhoi to ccarry Su-30MKI will be capable of carrying five new missiles. The Sukhoi can carry nine tonnes of payload.

The Sukhoi will be capable of carrying two missiles under each wing and one missile under the fuselage.