Bangalore. The Indian Navy is set to carry Shipboard Supersonic Missiles on most of its ships and submarines.

After several successful trials, at least two vessels, INS Rajput and INS Ranvir, have already been fitted with the BrahMos supersonic missiles while efforts to put it on board submarines, as well as naval and Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft is also on.

The Indo-Russian BrahMos is the first operational supersonic missile in the world and the Indian Navy, which has always been missile savvy, is the first to carry any supersonic cruise missile.

The range and payload though are limited deliberately in line with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which India has observed throughout – albeit without signing it – and to which Russia is a signatory and treaty-bound.

The Indian Navy has always been ‘missile savvy’ and ‘pro missilery’ since both its historic attacks on Karachi on 4th Dec (Op Trident) and 8th December, 1971(Op Python) were path breakers in missile warfare for the world to emulate.

The trend to fit anti-ship SSMs, and ship to land missiles on ships was incorporated even by smaller navies on their platforms. In the Indian Navy, a band of Soviet-trained officers nicknamed ‘The Killers’ led the campaign for the missiles.

Two of these officers were Captains K K Nayyar and Madholkar, later Vice Admirals. Most of them received their training at Vladivostok in the late 1960s.

Many commanded missile ships and served in missile boats and grew up in the Navy to hold important posts of influence to pursue missile options. In a unique experiment for instance in the 1980s, two British-supplied Type 12 vessels, INS Talwar and INS Trishul, had their forward 4.5 inch guns removed in the Naval Dockyard Mumbai and four Styx P-15 missile launchers, adding range capability to the fleet for missile warfare.

The Navy’s technical teams that supported the preparation and loading of Styx missiles in the Osa Class boats in the 1971 war and later P-20 liquid fuelled missiles in the Kashin class ship, INS Rajput, achieved a high degree of capability. INS Agnibahu, which had a mobile Technical Position TP, and Naval Armament Depot Karanjia off Mumbai, became synonymous with hundred per cent missile serviceability.

A TP was also set up at Vishakapatnam when the missile boats were based there.

The fitment of the various variants and upgrades of the French Exocet and US Harpoon missiles has been recorded in 18 navies. Their Soviet equivalents were the Styx P-15 (30nm), Styx P-20 (50nm) and Zvezda Kh-35 sea skimming Uran (100nm), which were inducted on most Indian Navy frontline platforms with angled launchers. These were met with success in most exercises and trials against Battle Practice Targets BPTs and decommissioned ships.

All these were straight flying missiles with radar homing. A preset ‘Radar Gate’ opened at a particular range to seek and lock on to a designated target, so that friendly ships in the vicinity or en route were not engaged.

In late 1990s, the Russian Rosboronexport signed a $ one billon contract for the three Krivack Talwar class missile stealth frigates to be built by the Admiralty Yard and Russia offered to fit the vertical launch 8 Novator Klub (3M-54E1) missiles in a VLS nestle. The first ship of class INS Talwar was commissioned in May 2002 at Northern Yard at St Petersburg.

The 180 km SS-N-27 Klub missile has variants for anti ship, land attack, air and submarine launch. The Indian Navy was the first customer of this ship-borne missile, which has the significant ‘Way Points Capability’.

The missile is initially fed GPS data. Then, with the aid of an onboard ring laser gyro Interial Navigation System, it is guided to a way point at which the INS enables the missile to alter course for the target. This achieves surprise as the target cannot predict the direction the missile, which also takes a low, sea skimming approach.

The speeds of the missile also varies; it cruises at .7 Mach while in the final attack mode, it moves at Mach 2.

There have been mixed reports on the success of the ‘way point mode of attack’ as any new sophisticated weapon system take time to iron out the glitches.

Buoyed with success, the Indian Navy nonetheless decided to progressively fit out its Kilo class submarines during refits in Russia with the tube launched Klubs after the 19th Kilo EKM 877 INS Sindhushastra S64 joined the fleet in end 2000 from Sudomek Yard in St Petersburg.

More recently, the sixth Kilo boat INS Sindhuvijay has been fitted out with the Klub in Russia at Severodvinsk-based Zvyozdochka shipyard but reports have come in that the trials have not been successful and the severe December snow-bound cold delayed the trials.

Incidentally the aircraft carrier Gorshkov is also undergoing upgrade there, supervised by an IN overseeing team. The Navy is confident the Klub problems will be overcome.

At the same time, the Indian Navy has fitted the Indo-Russian supersonic missile BrahMos on board the INS Ranvir, D 54 of the Kashin class, making it the first with the indigenous vertical launch missile capability. This was done during refit at Vishakapatnam Naval Dockyard.

This is very important development for the Indian Navy, the nearly 50:50 Indo-Russian BrahMos partnership, the Indian defence industry, and of course, the Defence Research and Development organization (DRDO).

All future Naval platforms are slated to be armed with the BrahMos missiles and indeed, there would be periodic trials to prove and improve the capability further.

Notably, the Indian Army has also received its first land-based BrahMos Missile Battery after successful trials at Pokhran, while the air and submarine launched versions are under development and trials.

The history of the BrahMos missile and its progress needs recalling.

Over a decade ago, the DRDO under Dr Abdul Kalam – later President of India – got in touch with NPO Mashinoshtroinie (Mach), the Russian missile maker of the very versatile Yakhont PJ–10 missile. The firm was cash-strapped due to the weakening of the post-Soviet Russian economy. India offered money and the Russian firm its engine technology to collaborate in producing an under water launched missile for India’s nuclear submarine project, codenamed Advanced Technology Vehicle, or ATV.

The ATV project has recently been made public. Reports are that a reactor has been inserted in the hull at the Ship Building Centre (SBC) at Vishakaptnam.

Before the submarine is launched, there will be low and high power trials of the reactor as a next step.

As for the BrahMos, the first operational universal supersonic cruise missile in the world, the DRDO and Indian Navy liked the Uran and the Klub missiles as also the power of the Yakhont engine.

Accordingly, the joint venture BrahMos Aerospace (Pvt) Limited was set up in Feb 1998 with a leading Indian scientist, Dr A Sivathanu Pillai as CEO, and Mr Makshevev from Russia. There was joint funding and technical collaboration. The acronym BrahMos is perceived as the confluence of two great nations represented by two great rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moscow of Russia.

DRDO was confident that it could start adding Indian content in the missile and also work on the important source codes. The Indian Navy became BrahMos Aerospace’s first customer.