India to double cruise missile output

MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos has purchased a manufacturing plant in south India.

BrahMos plans to use the new facility to turn out twice as many supersonic cruise missiles as before, a company spokesman said Monday, RIA Novosti reported.

The Indian state-owned company Kerala Hightech Industries Ltd. sold the facility to BrahMos, and the increased manufacturing capacity will allow the number of cruise missiles being produced to rise from 25 a year to 50 a year, the report said.

RIA Novosti reported that Praveen Pathak stated the Defense Research and Development Organization, which represents the Indian half of BrahMos, would put around $25 million in the plant within two years, and the Indian Space Research Organization would contribute another $6 million.

"At the plant in (the state of) Kerala, we will assemble BrahMos missiles, as well as make components for Astra rockets produced by ISRO," Pathak said.

RIA Novosti said the contract on the transfer of the plant's ownership to BrahMos is expected to be concluded on Jan. 1.

BrahMos Aerospace was set up in 1998, and RIA Novosti said the company specializes in manufacturing supersonic missiles of its own design for the Indian army and navy.

The news agency said the BrahMos cruise missile enjoyed a range of 180 miles and was capable of flying with a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds. The missile flies as low as 309 feet about ground level at speeds of up to Mach 2.8, or around 2,000 miles per hour, making it three times faster than the U.S.-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile, it said.

RIA Novosti said India could buy as many as 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its armed forces in the next 10 years and export as many as 2,000 of them at the same time.

Indian and Russian engineers are currently seeking to develop air- and submarine-launched BrahMos missiles, the report said.