Even in war with Ukraine, Russia didn’t choose to deploy supersonic cruise missiles that possibly prompted the domestic developer here to expedite the NG (next generation) variant of the ‘fastest’ lethal weapon on earth, one of the key scientists in the mission said today.

In the Ukraine war, Russia relied mostly on its own 3M22 Zircon missile, besides the P-800 Oniks from its traditional Oniks family of missiles. “The engine part of P-800 Oniks though similar, but P-800 can be termed as ‘0’th version of BrahMos. Our BrahMos are now the world’s fastest missiles equipped with far more advanced intricate technology,” claimed Dr Sanjeev Kumar Joshi, deputy CEO, BrahMos Aerospace, country’s flagship missile developer. Dr Joshi has been involved with BrahMos for 25 years and he addressed the 19th convocation of the National Institute of Technology here today.

“We’ve now dedicated our efforts on BrahMos-NG, a lighter, stealthier and most lethal air-combat version of the existing platform,” Dr Joshi told The Statesman on the sidelines of the NIT Convocation. He said: “Many Latin American, South East Asian, African and Middle East countries have already shown interest to buy BrahMos-NG after an international exhibition.” Already, India secured its first mega defense export to the Philippines worth US $ 375 million and Dr Joshi said: “The first batch of delivery to the Philippines was shipped last April.”

Pravin Pathak, export director, BrahMos Aerospace, in last February claimed that the Indo-Russian JV had US$7 Billion orders in its portfolio and it’s now stressed for potential buyers.

Asked why the Russian didn’t show courage for BrahMos, Dr Joshi explained, “Russians are having their own set of things, artillery and they have their own set of geo-politics there, which are different from others.” And this might be the reason why the Russians didn’t consider to opt for BrahMos, which seems to be far better missiles than P-800.

The state trials for BrahMos-NG, as was learnt, are now scheduled to begin in the late 2024 or in the first quarter of 2025, considering the climate conditions.

BrahMos, the medium range ramjet supersonic missile was developed from Russia’s P-800 Oniks family of cruise missiles through a JV between NPO Mashinostroyenia and Defence Research & Development Organization, India. The missile is named after the Indian river Brahmaputra and Moskva river of Russia.

At NIT, currently, 111 sponsored research projects worth Rs 45 crore are under execution in the NIT, Durgapur, the director of the deemed tech-varsity, Prof Arvind Choubey said. “It has bagged a Rs 8.47 crore mega project awarded by the ministry of textile, under the National Technical Textile Mission, besides working on much ambitious ‘Green Steel Making’ to ensure Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to secure net zero carbon emission by 2070,” he added.

In today’s convocation, 1,148 graduate students from 2023 and 1,150 graduates from 2024 were awarded degrees, besides 156 degrees, alongside 76 gold medals were awarded. Union minister of state, education Dr Sukanta Majumdar addressed the convocation virtually from Hyderabad.