Sub-launched version of BrahMos rocket ready for installing

A submarine-launched version of a supersonic cruise rocket BrahMos, which is co-produced by Russia and India is ready for installation on submarines, and, as soon as the government of India makes a respective decision, will be phased into service, Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and Managing Director of the BrahMos Aerospace Company, told Itar-Tass on Thursday. The Company develops and produces these rockets. A successful launch of a BrahMos rocket from an underwater test bench was carried out in March this year. The launch was effected from an underwater vertically positioned container which imitated an airtight compartment of submarine. After rocket's liftoff from water by means of a solid-propellant rocket motor and its separation, the rocket's ramjet engine was activated and the rocket went to a supersonic aerocruise mode and made the programmed flight along a pre-calculated flight path, 290 km long. The rocket's flight was monitored by telemetric tracing stations which include the radars of combatant ships of the Indian Navy distributed along the rocket's flight path. "The successful test of the BrahMos rocket demonstrated possibilities for the launch of the rocket from an underwater platform. The rocket is ready for installation on submarines. No additional tests are required," Dr. Pillai pointed out. BrahMos rockets are expected to be installed on six non-atomic submarines of Design 751, a tender for the supply of which will be announced in India soon. Russia will also participate in the prospective tender with submarines of "Amur-1650" Design and, according to Andrei Baranov, General Director of the Central Marine Technology Design Bureau Rubin, in case of win, will be able to turn over a type ship to New Delhi five years from the moment an appropriate contract is concluded. This may refer to a 2019-2020 period. "Our team closely cooperates with the army so that the submarine-launched rocket could be phased into service even earlier than planned," Dr. Pillai added. The Russo-Indian joint-venture enterprise BrahMos was established in 1998 and got its name in honour of the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva. The Company is the technological partner of India's first naval and shipbuilding exhibition NAMEXPO-2013 held in the city of Kochi in the southern state of Kerala these days.