Hypersonic Brahmos II to be ready by 2013

Chennai: Brahmos Aerospace's hypersonic missile project, Brahmos II, was expected to be ready by 2013, a top defence official said here today.

"Once developed, the missile would have a speed between Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) and Mach 7", chief controller of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, informed media on the sidelines of the inauguration of an exhibition of armoured vehicles by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE).

The exhibition was organised as part of the DRDO Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Dr Pillai, CMD, Brahmos, also said that future wars would be fought with a minimum number of people who would be using high-powered weapons. "It will be network centric and fought with intelligent and autonomous systems", he said.

Cyber warfare and robotic systems would dominate the battlefield, he said.

An MoU was signed between CVRDE and Anna University to develop various combat vehicles for the future battlefield. The MoU would facilitate students of the University gain access to high technology labs of CVRDE at Avadi, director S Sundaresh later said.