Supersonic strike: India's BrahMos missile marks Pakistan targets
On the night of May 6 to 7, 2025, India conducted an airstrike on targets in Pakistan. It appears that the supersonic BrahMos missile was utilized, as suggested by the booster found in India. Here, we explain its significance.
Local residents in India discovered a missile booster belonging to a BrahMos missile, identified by the CK-310 marking. It is a missile with a range of several hundred kilometres, carried by SU-30MKI aircraft. This is one of India's most effective means of attacking deep into enemy territory.
BrahMos — a joint creation of India and Russia
The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile developed through a collaboration between India and Russia. This partnership began in February 1998 when an intergovernmental agreement was signed, leading to the formation of the BrahMos Aerospace company. The missile's name combines the first letters of the Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers.
The BrahMos is based on the design of the Russian anti-ship missile P-800 Oniks/Yakhont. Similar to its Russian counterpart, the BrahMos can fly at low altitudes (about 10-15 metres) over water or ground surfaces at supersonic speed, challenging targets with limited time to react unless they have AWACS-type aircraft in the air.
The first BrahMos test occurred in June 2001, and since then, numerous tests have been conducted from different platforms. The missile can be launched from land-based platforms, surface ships, or even submarines, as confirmed by a test on March 20, 2013. The initial range was about 290 kilometres, but newer versions have increased it to around 800 kilometres.
Meanwhile, development on the BrahMos-A airborne version, designed for launch from fighter jets, and its integration with Su-30MKI aircraft has been ongoing since 2012. The BrahMos-A version is estimated to have a range of up to 400 kilometres.
BrahMos — the secret behind its design
The BrahMos features a two-stage design: the first stage is a rocket booster that detaches after burnout, and the second is the main missile body equipped with a ramjet engine.
The rocket booster ignites after the missile is dropped from the aircraft and works for a few seconds, accelerating the missile to the speed required to activate the ramjet engine. This is similar to the European MBDA Meteor missile, which offers a greater range in the same format compared to a conventional rocket engine.
The ramjet engine doesn't require a mixture of fuel and oxidizer as a traditional rocket engine does, instead, it draws the oxygen needed for combustion from the atmosphere. Its compression results from factors such as the shape of the air intakes and the missile's high speed. Consequently, the space that would typically house the oxidizer is available for a larger fuel supply.
This results in a missile with a range of several hundred kilometres, capable of moving at speeds around Mach 3 (approximately 1,030 metres per second), posing a significant challenge for air defense systems. The missile is also reported to carry a warhead weighing over 200 kilograms, with inertial and satellite navigation modules responsible for precise targeting, and a radar system operating in the final phase of flight to ensure pinpoint accuracy.
