DRDO test fires Naval Version of BRAHMOS missile successfully

October 18, 2020

On October 18, 2020, the Defence Research Development Organization test fired the naval version BRAHMOS missile from INS Chennai successfully. The missile was test fired from an indigenously built stealth destroyer INS Chennai. The missile hit a target in Arabian Sea

Highlights

BRAHMOS is a supersonic missile. It was jointly developed by India and Russia.

Classification of Missiles

The major classification of the missiles is Cruise Missiles and Ballistic Missiles

Ballistic missiles

The Ballistic Missiles are those missiles that have a ballistic trajectory. The currently operational ballistic missiles in the Indian Defence Systems are Prithvi I, Agni I, Prithvi II, Agni II and Dhanush.

Cruise Missiles

Cruise Missiles are those missiles that are self-propelled till impact. They use jet engine technology and fly within the atmosphere.

The Cruise missiles can be categorised based on their speed, range, size and whether launched from air, land or surface ship or submarine.

Speed

Based on the speeds, the missiles are classified as follows

Hypersonic cruise missile
Subsonic Cruise Missile
Supersonic Cruise Missile

The Hypersonic Cruise missile travels at a speed of more than 5 Mach. Supersonic missiles travel at a speed of 2 to 3 Mach. The subsonic missiles travel at a speed of 0.8 mach.

Launch mode

The missiles are classified as follows based on their launch mode

Surface to surface missile

These missiles have a guided projectile Anda launched from a a vehicle mounted or trailer mounted or handheld or fixed installation. They are powered by a rocket motor or explosive charges.

Surface to air missiles

They are designed for launch from ground full stop there destroyed aerial targets such as helicopters aircraft or even ballistic missiles. They are generally called the air defence systems as they are generally involved in aerial attack.

Surface to sea missiles

These missiles are launched from land to destroy ships in the sea as targets.

Air to air missiles

These missiles are launched from aircraft to destroy the enemy aircraft.

The Other types are air to surface missile, sea to sea missile, anti tank missile and sea to surface missile.

Range

The missiles are classified based on their range as follows

Short range missile
Medium range missile
Intercontinental ballistic missile
Intermediate range missile

Propulsion

The missiles are classified as follows based on their proportion

Solid propulsion

Generally aluminium powder is used as solid propulsion fuel. They reach high speeds very quickly.

Liquid propulsion

The liquid propulsion Technology uses liquid as fuel. Generally, hydrocarbons are used as liquid propulsion fuels. However, storage of liquid propulsion fuel in the missiles is difficult. The impulse given by liquid propulsion fuel is higher than that of the solid propulsion fuel.

Hybrid propulsion

The two stages of hybrid propulsion are solid propulsion and liquid propulsion.

Ramjet

It does not have turbines. Rather the compression of air in the missiles is achieved through to forward speed of the missiles. Therefore, the Missile should travel at Supersonic speeds for the air to enter inside. The fuel is injected and ignited. The heat produced from the ignition expands the gases in the air and the combustion accelerates the Missile to higher velocities.