Russia and India will carry out test launches of jointly developed cruise missile BrahMos in mid-2011 in the Baltic Sea, reports ITAR-TASS citing Executive Director, BrahMos Aerospace Sivathanu Pillai at the defense show IDEX-2011 held in United Arab Emirates. Launches will be performed by the first of thee Project 11356 frigates built by Russian shipyard Yantar for Indian Navy.
According to Pillai, the missile has been already prepared for tests; certain date of launches will be set when the first Project 11356 frigate finishes mooring trials. The $1.6 bln contract for three Project 11356 frigates was tied in 2007. Yantar shipyard launched the first ship – INS Teg – in Nov 2009, and the second one – INS Tarkash – in June 2010. Expectedly, those ships will be delivered to Indian Navy in 2011-2012.
Full displacement of Project 11356 frigates is 4,000 tons; hull length is 124.8 meters; max speed is up to 30 knots; fuel range is 4,500 miles. Frigates will be armed with BrahMos missile 8-tube bow launcher.
Constructively, antiship cruise missile BrahMos is based on P-800 Onyx missile which was designed in the USSR late 80's. BrahMos missile's length is about 10 meters; all-up weight is 3.9 tons; payload weight is 300 kg; max flight speed is 3,500 kph; flight range is 290 km. The missile has been designed by Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace.
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