Does anybody know whether the following (in bold) has any basis?
These missiles are supersonic and a naval version has apparently
been test-fired. If eventually sold to RMN, these missiles could
possibly be mounted on either the Lekiu frigates or the Laksamana
corvettes.
Brahmos Aerospace ties up with Rosoboronexport State Corp
Vinay Shukla Moscow, April 7 (PTI) Brahmos Aerospace, an
Indo-Russian Joint Venture has tied up with Russia's
Rosoboronexport State Corporation to globally market its new
generation supersonic cruise missiles for naval and air platforms.
The Plan on joint export promotion of BrahMos missile systems was
inked by Andrey Beliyaninov - Director General of Rosoboronexport,
Dr Herbert Yefremov - Director General of NPO Mashinostroyeniya and
Dr A Sivathanu Pillai - CEO and Managing Director of BrahMos
Aerospace. It visualises undertaking of joint marketing activities,
aimed at promotion of 'BrahMos' missile systems of ship-born and
air-born applications to foreign markets, Rosoboronexport said in a
statement. Under an intergovernmental agreement signed in 1998,
India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and
Russia's premier nuclear missile designer and producer NPO
Mashnistroyeniya floated the USD 250 Million joint venture in
India, in which DRDO has 50.5 per cent equity. "There is a
significant interest in the world in BrahMos cruise missiles and
many countries have already made inquiries. However, the
decision to sell them to a certain country has to be made jointly
by the governments of India and Russia," Dr Pillai told PTI.
Although Dr Pillai declined to identify the nations which could be
possible buyers of BrahMos missiles, Russian expert Dr Alexander
Vaskin believes that Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam could get
these missiles as "friendly countries". BrahMos cruise
missiles, which are to be inducted by the Indian navy beginning
from next year, have been on display in several international arms
exhibitions including in Sydney, Singapore and Abu Dhabi and every
where potential buyers have been showing keen interest in them. "As
of today and in a decade to come BrahMos has no match in the world
in its class. It is a smart weapon system, you only need to feed
the co-ordinates of the target, and it hits precisely overcoming
enemy electronic counter-measures. It is a versatile tactical
cruise missile of the range of 290 km and can be fired from ships,
submarines, land-based mobile launchers, silos and aircraft," Dr
Pillai said. The BrahMos supersonic missile capable of cruising at
the altitude ranging from 10 metres to 10 kilometres flies to its
target at the speed of Mach 2.8 - almost three times faster than
sound, leaving no time for the adversary to react. According to
Russian experts, BrahMos missile is three times faster than the
highly publicised US Tomahawk cruise missile and two missiles are
enough to sink an enemy aircraft carrier. (THROUGH ASIA
PULSE)
[Press Trust of India]
http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_227427.php
