Bharat Rakshak

Btw, 10000 ft is not exactly terrain-hugging.

As it is common to gauge against Tomahawk for any cruise missile, here is some snapshots to gauge performance of Nirbhay

~1300 kg Tomahawk has a maximum range of ~1600 km

And it is reported,

~1000 kg Nirbhay has a range of ~1000 km.

It is when when the mean altitude of the region is 10,000 feet (ASL) as well. We are talking about ASL, not AGL when we measure these numbers.

Btw, 10000 ft is not exactly terrain-hugging.

Are you referring to my mention of 10,000ft?

I meant in context of having to clear himalayas...you can terrain hug at 29000ft too as the missile crests the top of everest and starts the long descent in tfr more to the brown plains of tibet and the s300 radar post.

Brahmos in the Himalayas is likely to have a higher range simply because 10,000 feet would be the minimum altitude to go anywhere. I am not at all sure that it would be necessary to snake around mountains to remain stealthy over the Himalayas, It would be difficult to detect or intercept even if the missile merely flew an almost straight line level with the highest peaks of a given region merely dodging the peaks.

An average altitude of 15.000 to 20,000 feet would clear all but the highest peaks and arrive just a few hundred meters above the Tibetan plateau so the descent would be a short one because Tibet itself is 15,000 feet up.

After the disturbing fact tumbled out that 97 per cent of Indian air defence equipment is obsolete, the armed forces are now in the final stages of trying out a new set of missiles that will target airborne threats at a very short range.

This will prove crucial in protecting military bases, frontline airbases, tank regiments, warships and also strategic assets. The last set of trials is slated for February 2013, sources confirmed.

India aims to spend $5.4 billion (approx Rs 29,000 crore) to buy some 1,000 missile launchers and 6,000 missiles for its Very Short-Range Air-Defence System (VSHORADS). This is the initial order. Once the missile is approved for purchase, licence production in India will commence making it the key weapon of choice, sources said. Public sector giant Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) will be the Indian production arm.

It was in March that the then Army Chief General VK Singh wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying 97 per cent of the air defence systems were obsolete. India, at present, operates the Russian origin Igla-SA-18 weapon for very short range targets - between 6 to 8 km.

The new set of missiles will form the last ring of air defence and have to be very accurate and reliable in hitting targets. The prime aim is to tackle UAVs, helicopters and even low-flying fighter jets within immediate range.

The three contenders are the French missile maker MBDA with its weapon ‘Mistral’, Sweden’s Saab with its ‘RBS 70 NG’ and Russia’s new generation ‘Igla-SA-24’. Sources said the evaluation was done in extensive trials carried out during summer in Rajasthan in May.

A coastal environment trial was done near Visakhapatnam to check for firing capabilities in humid conditions. High-altitude trails have been conducted at Ladakh. The winter testing of the weapon will be done in early February in the northern part of the country.

Sources pointed out that India is looking at a system that can be deployed in multiple configurations and can be used by the Army, Air Force and Navy. One among the many configurations that the missile should have is that it should be man-portable that can easily lifted by troops in rugged mountain areas and carried to newer locations.

In the plains, the requirement is to fit it with a twin-launcher and base it on a high-mobility vehicle so that it can accompany the tank regiments to battle or be at airbases and other high-value targets like nuclear plants and large dams like the Bhakra

I was talking not of the strategic variant of the tomahawk, not the tactical one. These had ranges up to 2500 km.

Failure of Trishul is biting us.

$5.4 billion for manpads!

08:06 India to invest Rs 6,000 crore in new BrahMos missile: The Financial Express reports:' New Delhi: India has inked a Rs 6,000-crore joint venture with Russia under which the latter will supply 200 high-precision supersonic cruise missile BrahMos to the IAF. In its wake, India has set up another manufacturing and system integration plant in Thiruvananthapuram to boost production of the missiles. The Cabinet Committee on Security recently approved the air version of the BrahMos. Both the Indian Army and Navy have already inducted BrahMos� land and sea versions in their respective inventory....'

The Indo-Russian BrahMos integrated in Kerala will be retrofitted on the Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets. The integration of the air version of the missile will be done by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), and the tests are scheduled for December. The air version of the missile, with a range of 290 km, is shorter than the other variants

The original plan, for an air based Brahmos, was to have a smaller booster (as compared to a land launched one) because:
1) The MKI could not carry the weight of the land launched one,
2) The air launched one did not need a booster of the land launched one, because
a) The plane itself provided a "boost", and
b) The altitude at which the plane was at also provided a "boost"
At no point in time that I can recall was the plan to accept a lower range.

So, this lower range for the air launched missile is rather perplexing.

I suspect it is because of some limitation within the MKI itself that it could not host a larger missile- with the larger range. Or it could be because they wanted more than one missile per MKI and for that they needed a mush smaller missile.

it is aviation fuel of some unknown type - ie purified kerosene with some additives.

All aviation fuel, ATF, is purified kerosene.

is it possible that the fuel used on the BrahMos is same/similar to the one used by the mother a/c?
in that case, is it feasible that the BrahMos is loaded on a wet pylon, but its fuel tank is empty.
the mother a/c then takes off with the empty BrahMos which fills up the missile in-flight using its own on-board fuel.
my point is that in such cases, AAR might help the mother a/c take-off with a lighter load and then tank-up the missile mid-flight prior to actual launch.
is this feasible considering that the a/c and missile use similar (or hopefully identical) fuels?

Does Brahmos have any jet engines ?

Lower range for air launched brahmos? As far as I remember it is same as the official range of land based Brahmos

I don't think the Agni 1 is 'Pak Specific' anymore, although it may have been, while on the drawing board. Don't you think this is emerging as a weapon of choice in the Tibet theater, if the PLA decided to use their M-9/M-11 and TU-16 air launched cruise miss. at standoff range, just in case they get the shivers sending in their manned J-10's and J-11's. The counter strategy would start with Prahar, BM-30 Smerch-ER, Prithvi's and Agni-1's to take the juice out of the conscripts. I don't see the liquid Prithvi in inventory for much too long, maybe the solid fuel ones, once the inventory reaches optimal levels.

Natarajan said defence scientist were also working on the profile to develop 1,000 KM range surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile by enhancing capabilities of already deployed Indo-Russian Brahmos Missile.

does anyone know the plans and deployment status of the Shourya. so far no open source news when its trials period will be over, no news of user trials, which agency IA or SFC will own it, production order and how it fits the matrix alongside A-1.

2) The air launched one did not need a booster of the land launched one, because
a) The plane itself provided a "boost", and

Exactly. The Brahmos would be easily reaching its theoretical ranges of around ~500 Km when launched from a carrier aircraft and thrown at targets on the Tibetan plateau.