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The BrahMos missile has already earned a formidable reputation as one of the fastest and most precise cruise missiles in operational service. Developed through a joint venture between India and Russia, it has evolved steadily over the years, expanding its range, launch platforms, and tactical flexibility. India currently fields BrahMos missiles capable of being launched from land, sea, air, and submarines, with upgraded variants now reaching ranges between 450 and 900 kilometers, far beyond the original 290-kilometer limit.
Recent events have further reinforced the missile’s strategic credibility. During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighter jets reportedly launched BrahMos cruise missiles against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. According to available operational assessments, the missiles struck their designated targets with high accuracy, demonstrating effectiveness in real combat-like conditions. Notably, one of the strikes reportedly hit Pakistan’s heavily secured Noor Khan Air Base within minutes, despite the presence of Chinese-origin air defense systems deployed to protect sensitive installations. Defense analysts say the incident underscored the difficulty of detecting and intercepting a low-flying, high-speed, maneuverable cruise missile like BrahMos.
Experts point out that BrahMos’ survivability lies in a combination of factors: sustained supersonic speed of Mach 2.8 to Mach 3, sea-skimming or low-altitude flight profiles, abrupt mid-course maneuvering, and a sophisticated blend of inertial navigation and satellite guidance. Together, these features compress enemy reaction time and complicate radar tracking, making interception extremely challenging. According to assessments cited by the Indian Defence Research Wing, the missile’s interception rate remains, in practical terms, zero, as no confirmed operational interception has been recorded to date.
Looking ahead, BrahMos Aerospace officials have expressed confidence that even with future upgrades to enemy radar, sensor fusion, and space-based tracking systems, intercepting BrahMos will remain highly difficult well into the 2035–2040 timeframe. This confidence is now being extended to the next evolutionary step: BrahMos-2, the hypersonic version currently under development by Indian defense scientists.
BrahMos-2 is expected to incorporate hypersonic glide capabilities, allowing it to travel at speeds exceeding Mach 7 while maintaining maneuverability throughout its flight. Initial test flights are tentatively projected around 2028. If successful, the missile would operate in a speed regime that places extreme stress on existing air defense architectures, including advanced systems such as S-400, THAAD, and Iron Dome, which are primarily optimized for ballistic or conventional cruise missile threats.
Defense experts believe that the hypersonic BrahMos could redefine cruise missile warfare for the next two to three decades by shrinking response windows to seconds and blurring the line between ballistic and cruise missile interception. Its development comes alongside other strategic advances in India’s missile program, including the recent successful test of the submarine-launched K-4 ballistic missile and the continued presence of long-range systems like Agni-5.
As India steadily strengthens its indigenous defense capabilities, the evolution of BrahMos from a supersonic precision weapon into a hypersonic strike system highlights a broader strategic shift toward speed, survivability, and deterrence. If the program meets its projected milestones, BrahMos-2 is likely to emerge as one of the most consequential missile systems of the next generation, with implications extending well beyond South Asia and into the global defense landscape.
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