Mumbai: The first of the 100 orders for the airframes to develop BrahMos missile systems (air-launched version) was handed over to the Defense Research Development Laboratories (DRDL) by Godrej Aerospace.

Godrej Aerospace is a unit of Godrej & Boyce which had bagged the orders from DRDL for the delivery of 100 sets of airframes for the air-launched missile in December 2017.

The DRDL will now conduct the qualification tests for the ingeniously manufactured assembly unit, the company said.

The BrahMos missile is designed as a supersonic cruise missile with a flight range of up to 290 km. The missile carries a conventional warhead having weight about 200-300 kg and can go at a speed of 15 km of altitude and as low as 10m above the ground and can maintain supersonic speed (more than 1 km per second) during its continuous duration of the flight.

The missile has the capability to be launched from air, land or water for being versatile. The targets too may vary by being land or water and once the missile is fired, then it does need any kind of guidance for its target from control center making it a kind of ‘fire and forget’ missiles.

The first successful launch for the missile was conducted on June 12, 2001, from a land-based launcher at the interim test range off the Chandipur coast in Orissa.

The Godrej made frames will undergo testing processes set by DRDL, it said while adding that the company will deliver the next set of airframes by December this year.

Among other things, the company also wants to produce the first indigenous missile booster that was till now had to be imported.

Till now Godrej has successfully supplied more than 100 sets of the land version of the missile to BrahMos Aerospace.

Congratulating Godrej Aerospace for successfully manufacturing the first airframe, Dashrath Ram Yadav, programme director for BrahMos at the DRDL, said “the delivery of the first airframe assembly for the air-launched version of the BrahMos missile in such a short time frame goes a long way in showcasing Godrej’s commitment towards the project as the delivery comes in the span of just eight months.”

“Indigenous manufacturing of defense equipment brings down costs and enhances the know-how about critical technologies while ensuring the reliability of spare parts”, said Sudhir Mishra, director general and CEO of BrahMos Aerospace said.

“It is a matter of pride that today we have handed over the first airframe assembly of the prestigious air-launched version of the BrahMos missile in just eight months”, said Jamshyd Godrej, chairman and managing director of Godrej & Boyce said,

“Our partnership with BrahMos and DRDL is unique as it brings together the planning of defense units and the innovation of private enterprise to robustly achieve one strategic goal of securing the nation,” he said.

The association of Godrej Aerospace with BrahMos programme has gone a long way since the inception in 2001 when it was manufacturing most of the metallic sub-systems in the BrahMos missile system.

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