BrahMos Aerospace, Russian NPO Mashinostroyenia sign protocol

"Both sides have agreed to take necessary steps to secure the unconditional execution of the contracts for deliveries to the Indian armed forces. This makes it a first of its kind in the relationship between India and Russia that there would be no price escalation issue during the duration of the contract," BrahMos officials told PTI here.

In recent times, several defence contracts with Russia have faced problems after Moscow escalated the price of defence hardware mid-way like the increase in cost of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov from USD 974 million to over USD 2.3 billion.

Under the agreement, both sides pledged their readiness to work towards developing hypersonic version of the missile to maintain its leadership in cruise missiles, they said.
BrahMos is planning to develop a hypersonic version of the 290 km-range cruise missile, which would travel at speeds above 5 Mach.

The protocol has been signed by NPO Mashinostroyenia Director General and Designer General A G Leonov and BrahMos Aerospace chief A Sivathanu Pillai during the two day visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to India.

The Russian side committed full support of its specialists to Indian industries for manufacturing elements of missiles which are presently not produced in India, officials said.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India and Russia. Premier defence research organisation DRDO represents India and NPO Mashinostroyenia represents Russia in it.
The missile has already been inducted into the Indian Army and the Navy and the work on its air launched version is on.