Brahmos Supersonic Cruise Missile : News, Updates and Discussions

Chain Smoker said:
Ground launched version has already been tested with ecil seeker.

It seems like we were deliberately not using indigenous systems such as booster, warhead & seeker and kept importing them from Russia before the war , obviously to give them hafta.
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Not deliberately, before there were not much incentive for them perhaps. Its a gradual process, esp for high end stuff like seeker etc. We can make one but no guarantee it will give the maturity & performance parameter immediately hence tech is sought on maturity & stringent parameter. Now I think a lot of such products are being made locally & will find use in the systems.

We can see tests will be in batches as they select the vendors guess this is why 10-12 tests in the last year. Good thing is diversifying the source. In case of immediate need we can source from multi vendors quickly. 5 more Brahmos test articles were sought couple months ago, must be close to happening again. By system I mean everything, the trucks, radar , fcs, telemetry cameras & sensors are needed in places by whoever are doing it. They transfer those to the testing range & fire off. Quite a lot of work actually.
 
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marich01 said:
Not deliberately, before there were not much incentive for them perhaps. Its a gradual process, esp for high end stuff like seeker etc. We can make one but no guarantee it will give the maturity & performance parameter immediately hence tech is sought on maturity & stringent parameter. Now I think a lot of such products are being made locally & will find use in the systems.

We can see tests will be in batches as they select the vendors guess this is why 10-12 tests in the last year. Good thing is diversifying the source. In case of immediate need we can source from multi vendors quickly. 5 more Brahmos test articles were sought couple months ago, must be close to happening again. By system I mean everything, the trucks, radar , fcs, telemetry cameras & sensors are needed in places by whoever are doing it. They transfer those to the testing range & fire off. Quite a lot of work actually.
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Warhead, seeker & booster were developed and tested way back but we are only hearing about them after the war So it only means we kept importing them.
 
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Chain Smoker said:
Warhead, seeker & booster were developed and tested way back but we are only hearing about them after the war So it only means we kept importing them.
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Yes development to product certification stage there will always be gap of number of years, sometimes even 10 or more depending on nature, else companies can not use it & sell. Akash has been in service for so long & yet only recently DRDO handed over whole tech document & materials spec etc to MSQAA for certification. Any product that is made, we need to certify everything, tech used, material used, machines used to make that all of these are part of product dev cycle. Until that happens, those sub parts will not be cleared for production stage.
 
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You guys are getting all this wrong. We've an agreement with Russia under which we're committed to buy stuff from them & prohibited from developing them independently leave aside mfg & supplying them for the Brahmos program. Else they wouldn't have parted with such cutting edge tech . It's a similar story with the MKI program. Russians supply us raw materials or CKDs SKDs , we pay them the costs + royalties & mfg / assemble them in house.

We don't have a choice in this matter . If we deviate from the agreement & behave like the Chinese we lose access to their cutting edge tech .
 
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_Anonymous_ said:
You guys are getting all this wrong. We've an agreement with Russia under which we're committed to buy stuff from them & prohibited from developing them independently leave aside mfg & supplying them for th
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Yeah I mentioned that part before, Dr Rane said it won't go beyond 68% level of indigenisation. By JV terms we have to buy some parts from them. I think before it was just the vehicles , ground FCS that was made here. Now we managed to get clearance for some more like the seeker, propellant, 2 boosters 60kg and 760kg ones, upto that 68% level. But the ramjet engine, core tech etc will still be bought.

Add with it, any replacement stuff we make locally, those will have similar user defined terms & QA certification process, which is happening now, first trial validation, then certify.
 
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marich01 said:
Yeah I mentioned that part before, Dr Rane said it won't go beyond 68% level of indigenisation. By JV terms we have to buy some parts from them. I think before it was just the vehicles , ground FCS that was made here. Now we managed to get clearance for some more like the seeker, propellant, 2 boosters 60kg and 760kg ones, upto that 68% level. But the ramjet engine, core tech etc will still be bought.
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That's precisely why we're pursuing the HSDTV program independently. For all you know there will be no Brahmos -2 hypersonic missile . It's just Plan B , a back up plan in case we botch up the HSDTV program completely.
 
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_Anonymous_ said:
That's precisely why we're pursuing the HSDTV program independently. For all you know there will be no Brahmos -2 hypersonic missile . It's just Plan B , a back up plan in case we botch up the HSDTV program completely.
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Yep, Atul Rane admitted they are waiting on Rus to pass the scramjet & related tech for it. My guess is it will only be passed on when significant breakthrough in HSTDV happen, or after a certain period of time when Rus feels a slightly degraded version is ready to be transferred.
HSTDV has been going on almost since the mid 90s, open source tech wise. Whatever knowledge was in public domain, all accumulated & research done indigenous way. The timeline is this big is due to material challenges. Some we did not have, lead time to make new material 5-20 years anything in between. Then you have very little supply demand for defense use so manufacturers did not bother much. But we are definitely very serious on this so it may take some time but we will get there very soon.
I will post a presentation on same topic when I get back home, its very good.
 
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Here is it, presented by current DRDO chief Dr. Kamat sir , I guess many have already seen this. Would make it clear how materials challenge can delay projects.
There is a surprise right at the very beginning, the person you see introducing Dr Kamat early, is Dr Jaiteerth Joshi sir, Program director LRSAM & current Program director XRSAM. That picture I posted before in another thread is from one of his presentations. DRDL director is also seen here.
ps: DRDL conference room is decent.

 

Indigenous Cruise Missile System With ‘Manik’ Turbofan Engine Test-Fired Off Odisha Coast​


Bhubaneswar: India’s first Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM) with domestic small turbofan engine Manik and upgraded radio frequency seeker was test fired from a defence facility from launchpad No- 3 of ITR Chandipur in Odisha’s Balasore district.

According to sources, the performance evaluation of the new engine is on and details are awaited.

Designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) laboratory Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in Bengaluru, the ‘Manik’ STFE is a bypass engine of 400 kgf thrust class. It is designed to propel ‘Nirbhay’ ITCM, a two-stage missile fueled by a solid rocket motor booster developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL).

According to DRDO, the STFE engine is a generic twin-spool engine without an afterburner. It is an expendable, single-use, short-life turbofan engine comprising various modules.

Of the three earlier tests of the ITCM conducted since 2020, two have failed and one achieved ‘partial success’.

In October 2020, a test had to be aborted after the system deviated from the pre-coordinated flight path. A year later, the DRDO held its first ‘partially’ successful test of the Manik engine as the engine performed per its requirement but the missile system could not travel the desired range reportedly due to some issues with the control mechanism. In October 2022, the engine developed technical glitches after the initial booster phase, and the missile system plunged into the sea within 30 seconds of the launch, according to India Defence News.
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odishabytes.com

Indigenous Cruise Missile System With ‘Manik’ Turbofan Engine Test-Fired Off Odisha Coast

Bhubaneswar: India's first Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM) with domestic small turbofan engine Manik and upgraded radio frequency seeker was
odishabytes.com odishabytes.com
 
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