Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 30: After Pakistan acknowledged the might of BrahMos in ruining its plans to hit out at India, the country is planning to expand the long-range supersonic cruise missiles universe with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi scoffing at the neighbour that the missile had left Pakistan sleepless.
Mr Modi’s teasing at Pakistan came a day after the Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif at a meeting in Azerbaijan admitted that India’s BrahMos missiles hit their targets before Pakistan could respond on the morning of May 10.
Addressing a rally after launching development projects worth nearly Rs 50,000 crores in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, Mr Modi praised the Indian military for the success of “Operation Sindoor” saying that India destroyed terror dens deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
“We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war,” said PM Modi, adding that BrahMos had given the Pakistan Army “sleepless nights.”
The Prime Minister’s remarks about the BrahMos missile came in response to Mr Sharif’s confirmation that Indian missiles had struck multiple targets within Pakistan on the nights of May 9 and 10. Speaking in Azerbaijan, Sharif acknowledged that the barrage—which included BrahMos missiles—caught the Pakistani military off-guard. He also revealed that Pakistan had been preparing a strike just before the Indian missiles hit.
Earlier this month, Sharif admitted that Indian missiles, including the BrahMos, had targeted key locations such as Pakistan’s Nur Khan air base and other strategic sites in the early hours of May 10. These missile strikes were reportedly part of India’s Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory response launched against the drone and missile attacks by Pakistan on the night of May 7. Those Pakistani strikes had followed India’s precision targeting of nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s headquarters.
“Our armed forces’ heroic acts forced the Pak Army to plead to stop the war,” Mr Modi thundered, picking up from similar speeches in his home state of Gujarat and Bihar. The Prime Minister proclaimed Op Sindoor had showcased India’s “military might” to the world, and reserved special praise for the BrahMos missile. The flurry of missiles, which included the BrahMos, caught the Pak military off-guard, Mr Sharif said in Azerbaijan.
The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile that flies at three times the speed of sound and can strike targets 400 kilometres away. Jointly developed by India and Russia, but manufactured exclusively in India, its air-launched variant, fired from the IAF Su-30MKI fighters from a Tamil Nadu-based squadron, was at the forefront of India’s aerial offensive during Operation Sindoor – a targeted military attack on terror infrastructures in Pakistan and PoK in response to the deadly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
After the Indian armed forces carried out Operation Sindoor on May 7, the Pakistani Army launched drones and missiles at western parts of India, which were successfully intercepted. India then hit selected military targets deep inside Pakistani territory. The Indian Army BrahMos launch units were also at high alert, and Indian Navy warships armed with the missile were also ready for action throughout the escalation.
Pakistan’s failure to intercept incoming BrahMos missiles, despite layered Chinese air defence systems, has raised serious questions about its ability to counter India’s growing missile arsenal. This was not the first time the BrahMos missile had entered Pakistani airspace – a 2022 accidental firing had already signalled its reach and capability.
India is now moving swiftly to expand the BrahMos universe. The production of an extended-range version of a BrahMos missile with an 800-kilometre strike envelope is underway. A submarine-launched variant will soon be tested again and become a reality on submarines in India’s P75I program. A miniaturised lighter BrahMos for Rafale and other fighter types is under development and a hypersonic BrahMos is also in the works, taking speed and survivability to the next level.
