The Hindu
Monday, Jun 14, 2004
BrahMos launch successful
By T.S. Subramanian
CHENNAI, JUNE 13. The seventh flight of BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia, took place successfully today from the interim test range at Chandipur-on-sea. The anti-ship missile, which flies at 2.8 times the speed of sound and can take out targets 290 km away, was launched at 12-15 p.m. It stands eight-metres tall, weighs three tonnes, and carries a conventional 200 kg warhead.
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You must visit the web home of this project (flash player and sound capability required for full effect) -
Here, as action packed music plays, the BrahMos is labeled a "universal supersonic cruise missile."
Although this might be nothing more than a marketing hook and a reflection of its transnational parentage I find the potential sub-text interesting. We've discussed the relative decline of US tech dominance before (decline into being a major node among equals and not the unrivaled master of advanced techniques most Americans believe their nation to be).
Here we have a category of technology the US has long boasted of dominating (indeed, being alone in pursuing - not rocketry of course but the cruise missile modification to military rocketry) that has been duplicated by India and Russia and, in time, may be made available to the rest of the world making the word "universal" more than a label.
Step by step, non-American firms and governments are matching these advanced violence-delivering technologies. This may partially explain the recent surge in Pentagon interest in ever more exotic killing techniques (such as orbitally staged tungsten rods and hypersonic aircraft) - as established areas of tech dominance are matched by competitors and distributed across the globe "power projection" becomes more difficult.
Imagine how tough it would have been to sell the idea of War Plan Iraq to the military (which, reportedly, was reluctant - even with its many material advantages) if their enemy was equipped with Sukhoi SU-47 fighters, BrahMos cruise missiles and laser guided coronet anti-tank weapons plus the ability to make more.
Hegemony becomes a trickier prospect if attractive targets for example setting can put a serious hurting on your forces (it's surely bad enough when rag-tag guerillas do it, but losing expensive aircraft in dogfights and tanks to armor piercing micro-missiles would, I imagine, be totally unacceptable to today's dominance accustomed US military).
I suspect the Pentagon takes these swiftly emerging data-points very seriously.
.d.