Each of INs new ships and some retrofitted older ones will carry 8 x brahmos. work is underway to permit flankers to carry 2 each (some say 3). if you take just flankers, a half -squadron of 7 planes can fly 1000km and release 14 brahmos into the air in one axis. a Brahmos VLS plug is on offer by Rubin the Amur makers.

while USN has luxury of extended air support, no other navy in the world is going to have a easy time against such a determined attack.
i multiple mutually supporting CVN airwings in close proximity would be necessary to deal with something like a 200 Flanker strike by PRC-PLANAF :diablo:

http://www.afa.org/magazine/March1999/0399carrier.asp

is there any public source info of SM2 / ESSM / Aster being tested against a salvo attack of 5+ supersonic manouvering drones on
(a) the shooter platform itself
(b) crossing attacks on other ships in SAG

http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/1-2004/at/hy/

An interview with Herbert Yefremov, the General Director and General Designer at Russian State Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia
….
Q. Could you describe the background of the BrahMos project? Who initiated it? How did the idea originate? How successful is its R&D? Is it keeping to schedule? When is it expected to begin generating commercial profits?

A. Acting on instructions from the Soviet government, NPO Mashinostroyenia was, in 1989, engaged in a number of research and technological consultations with Indian specialists on military-technical cooperation. Teams of Russian specialists in aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, materials dynamics, and designers and mathematicians traveled to India, as the Indians were looking to become world leaders in rocket engineering, even though they lacked specialists and proper computers.

The next stage in the interaction between NPO Mashinostroyenia and the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) came in the form of a proposal by Dr. Abdul Kalam, then head of the DRDO and later president of India. Dr. Kalam suggested that we should not limit ourselves to mere consultation and urged the establishment of a joint venture to work together on the research, development, manufacture and marketing of anti-ship cruise missile systems. After a brief discussion, this proposal was forwarded to the Russian government.

It hardly makes sense to describe how difficult it was for Russia to believe in this undertaking. However, after getting the go-ahead from the president in 1997, the Russian government finally signed an agreement with the Indian government to set up such a joint venture based on a common charter and with $250 million in capital, with the two countries contributing roughly equal amounts of money to jointly exploit the results of some relevant groundwork that the two countries had already done.

NPO Mashinostroyenia and the DRDO were selected to become the co-founders and shareholders of this Russian-Indian organization, which is headquartered in New Delhi.

The history behind the name of the joint venture, BrahMos, is interesting and unusual. Dr. Kalam had been on a trip to Russia, where he had visited St. Petersburg and walked along the banks of the Neva – he later even wrote a poem about this river. He suggested that the enterprise be called BrahmNev, combining the names of the prominent Indian and Russian rivers. We pointed out that Mashinostroyenia is located in the Moscow region, so it would be more proper to take the name from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. This is how this name – BrahMos – appeared.

The first launch of a missile built by the joint venture took place at the Chandipur range in India on June 12, 2001. It was totally successful, even though the launch program was quite complicated.

Now that the work of both partners in the joint venture has been praised and the venture is seen to be working efficiently, Russia and India really need to replicate this cooperation in the high-tech field.

Q. What do the founders of the BrahMos joint venture think about its current performance?

A. Ahead of a state visit to India on Dec. 3-5, 2002, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “I want to point out that your company is fulfilling its commitments accurately and qualitatively under the contracts with our Indian partners. It is a pleasure to note that the Russian-Indian joint venture has matured, works efficiently, and has good potential.” An appraisal by Indian President Dr. Kalam also gives grounds to expect that the joint venture’s output will be successfully introduced in India and in third countries with the mutual consent of India and Russia. The venture’s general achievements are already visible. A basic missile system with 12 launchers has been commissioned for the Russian Navy and installed onboard the Nakat, a small project 1234.7 missile ship with a water displacement of under 700 metric tons.

Cooperation between NPO Mashinostroyenia and India, which began in 1998, has so far withstood the test of time and the challenge of complicated projects, thus laying the foundations for further achievements. BrahMos was the brainchild of two presidents. It will not only advance the two countries’ existing technology but also develop know-how for the 21st century.

We have achieved the following results:

*

NPO Mashinostroyenia and the DRDO have completed the design of missile prototypes, and built and tested them;
*

A sufficient number of missiles have been built suitable for flight testing;
*

Launchers have been manufactured to fire the missiles from Rajput-type destroyers;
*

Six missiles were launched on extremely complicated trajectories from the Chandipur range in the Bay of Bengal between June 2001 and November 2003. The last launch from the Rajput destroyer was aimed at a real target vessel, which took a direct hit.

All conditions have been met for the switch to serial production of the joint version of the missile in 2004. On May 26, 2003, the joint venture was renamed BrahMos Aerospace, indicating that its plans are not only limited to cruise missile systems.

Q. Do you have any plans to continue working with your Indian partners after the BrahMos project has been completed? Do you have plans to build a PJ-10 version for aircraft or submarines, or to use it to deliver strikes on land targets?

A. Naturally there are plans to continue working together following the completion of the BrahMos project. Our creative cooperation thus far gives grounds to expect fruitful and reliable work for years to come, especially bearing in mind that both the Russian and Indian leaders value this cooperation. Joint work between equals is an extremely productive form of partnership for countries that view each other as strategic partners.

Q. How do the PJ-10 missiles differ from others that India has at its disposal, primarily those of the Club family?

A. First, the BrahMos missiles boast extremely good technical and tactical characteristics for this class of missile, and they can be used successfully against any enemy, including the most powerful. Second, they can be attached to various carriers, such as surface vessels, submarines, self-propelled launchers, or warplanes. Third, they are based on a missile commissioned for the Russian Navy in 2002. Fourth, these missiles are to be produced jointly at both Russian and Indian plants. Each of these Russian missiles and their families (Uran, Club, and Yakhont-BrahMos) occupies its own niche in the weapons system and has its specific tasks.

excerpt from Janes missiles and rockets, oct 1 2005.
…………..
For that final ‘all-up’ test,
the missile’s intended target, a decommissioned ship,
was hit by 3,000 kg of BrahMos, including a 200 kg
warhead, travelling at almost Mach 3 – and was chopped
in half.

The significance of BrahMos lies in its very
high-speed and intelligent behaviour. Each missile has
been designed to operate as part of a salvoed attack,
with a datalink net between the inflight missiles
updating them on target co-ordinates plus the status
of the other weapons in the attack. BrahMos’s high
speed makes it a difficult target to defeat – Western
intelligence agencies believe it may also have a
low-probability of intercept (LPI) ‘stealthy’ radar
option available to it, adding to its chances of
reaching the target.

India will initially deploy a ship-launched BrahMos
system, but work on an air-launched variant is also
underway. This has not moved forward according to the
original timetable (which called for trial launches in
2004) but the BrahMos team says that only funding and
a requirement are needed – the missile design is
ready. Launch aircraft for the BrahMos, at least in
Indian air force service, would be the Su-30MKI
‘Flanker’. But beyond this move from surface- to
airborne launch comes an even more important
development – a land-attack missile.

NPO Mash has confirmed that it is working on a version
of the missile that will incorporate a new
multi-spectral seeker for terminal guidance. The
missile’s existing radar seeker (coupled with global
positioning system guidance) already gives the Yakhont
a limited capability against some ground targets, but
offering a fully-fledged land-attack variant of the
export-dedicated Yakhont-M takes the weapon into a
whole new arena. NPO Mash says that the Yakhont-M
adheres to the 300 km range restriction imposed by the
MTCR agreement, but the missile’s basic design is
clearly capable of exceeding this figure. According to
the BrahMos joint venture company, the missile will be
available for export to ‘friendly countries’ once it
enters production – expected by the end of this year
or in early 2006. Indonesia has already been
identified as an interested potential customer, and
the list of possible BrahMos users includes any air
force operating an Su-30M ‘Flanker’ such as Malaysia
or Vietnam.

SM-6 (i.e SM2-IV + amraam active seeker) should fix the current lag in the SM2 wrt to specs of Aster30. I wouldnt be surprised if they added a TVC nozzle also.

the only navies currently with supersonic ASMs are russia, china and india. If we look at Aster customers (france, italy, singapore, saudis) none are likely in immediate future to need a supersonic interception capability simply because nobody in the world (except one nation) actively schemes of going to war against any of these three in short and medium term future. now that said nation is free to buy (as opposed to free handouts from US) aster30, 50, 70…..if they can afford it.

all IN subs are unmarked for some years now.