Super Carrier required for BrahMos

First test fired almost a decade ago in rainy days of June 2001 then project was known has PJ-10 , since then BrahMos Project has come a long way , Worlds first Anti-ship Supersonic cruise missile designed to take out an aircraft carrier made the world sit and notice its capability , BrahMos Missile project has added great power punch to Indian armed forces attack capability and it has benefited Indian Navy the most since it will provide great punch to knockout enemy surface fleet and also vital sea shore based installations and development of BrahMos Mk-II for Indian Army will help Army take out high valuable enemy target in case of war .

Biggest disappointing has been Air force version; BrahMos Corporation had suggested in mid-2004-5 that Sukhoi su-30MKI will be able to carry three Air launched BrahMos, while many at that time had taken this reports with pinch of salt since each BrahMos weights 3 tons in weight and carrying three even by Heavy class Sukhoi-30 mki could have put high level of stress to the airframe.

Since then better Sense seems to have prevailed and only one BrahMos was decided to be integrated , but the question remains is Sukhoi Su 30 MKI the right platform to carry 2.5 ton BrahMos Missile ?? , well Sukhoi Su 30 will need special modification and strengthening of airframe and most likely less than 40 aircrafts will be modified to carry BrahMos under its belly ,this mean not all aircrafts can carry Brahmos , so this will also limit future BrahMos -2 carrier limited to only forty so aircrafts .

Canberra Type aircraft scaled up by 30 to 35 % could have been perfect for the job to carry this massive missiles that to in good 3 to 4 in numbers, better aircraft could have been Tu-16 which Soviets have long retired but carbon copies are still manufactured in China and still used has a Cruise missile platform by their air force.

India which does not operate any aircraft in this class now, can work on modified Turbojet RTA-90 version with a bomb bay of three meters in diameters and ten meters in length could accommodate at least three BrahMos, RTA-90 might be considered by many reading my article has least likely aircraft for the job but it could be a great “Juggad “ for Indian Air force and save valuable airframe life’s our prime Air superiority fighter aircraft ,since even Russians have no plans for such arrangements even in their Various Sukhoi platforms they operate .

New BrahMos Carrier Aircraft could do the job much better than MKI ,since it will be able to carry more missiles in single sortie and been in internal carriage will put less stress on the aircrafts airframe which are any way designed to carry such massive payload . Locally modifying the aircraft will also be cheaper and also can be air launch platform for other Cruise missiles which are in development like sub sonic Nirbhay and Long range Supersonic Cruise Missile which will be test fired in 2014 time frame