http://www.russiandefenseblog.org/?p=171

yep, link to story and a rough translation.

В настоящее время усилия ОАО “ГСКБ “Алмаз-Антей” направлены на разработку и испытания опытного образца лазерного комплекса авиационного базирования для противодействия в инфракрасной области спектра разведывательным средствам возможного противника на земле, на море, в воздухе и в космосе. Самолет А-60,несущий авиационный лазерный комплекс

The work currently being done on the A-60 is NOT for the development of an ABL meant to shoot down missiles. The laser is meant to destroy optic sights on enemy ground vehicles, planes, ships and satellites very quickly. The idea is a single A-60 can fly up there and render an entire brigade of armor blind by knocking out every thermal imager in the division or it can blind a satellite. Russian lasers apparently arent powerful enough yet to down a missile from extreme ranges today. That’s the logical next step though, but its years and years away. Right now they are just working on something to blind a potential enemy. They are basically a little further down the line than the US was with the ALL program, but not quite where the US is with ABL today.

it would certainly be less profitable than a slow but steady destruction of the enemy. Attrition warfare is better business 🙂

It didnt say flight tests, but there was a rather long article on the rosprom.gov.ru site where one of the head engineers talked about the US lead in the field, mentioned the A-60 of old and said work was slow but ongoing on closing the gap with the Americans. I remember translating like a year ago. If I can find it I will post it.

werent there also 2 fires on the Lada at peer side? The whole project as a mess, but you have to more or less dismiss this 1st boat as a prototype that will likely be scrapped 5-7 years after induction anyway. What happens with the follow up ships is more important. This whole decade was a loss for the Russian navy anyway. Plus, probably a lot of the electronics on the Lada will simply be scaled up for any future SSN. I’m sure they will recycle a lot of the source code base for sure so better they mess up an SSK than mess up a billion dollar SSN.

multiple Indian sources claim it is a new seeker and not just the old seeker with new programing.

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:m4asUe0N4zMJ:www.ddinews.gov.in/National/National%2B-%2BOther%2BStories/ddddqw.htm+brahmos+block+II+new+seeker&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

“Officials said the technology in the Block II missiles was “unparalleled” and would help them hit “insignificant targets” hidden in cluster of buildings.

“The new seeker being developed is unique and would help us to hit our targets which are insignificant in terms of size in a cluster of large buildings. Once developed, we would be the only nation with this advanced technology,” they claimed.”

1. There is a new multi-spectrum seeker being tested, hence this failure. They are testing a new seeker so the limitations of the old seeker are entirely irrelevant now. Thank you for bringing up a problem that is no longer a problem. Clearly the developers realized the limitations of the original seeker fairly early on.

2. I personally dont believe the 300km range number. I dont think the missiles Russia and India will field will be so limited, the export missiles to other nations will likely be so limited, but I doubt the real Brahmos is so limited.

3. There is a 1,000km version in the works in any event so that “real” cruise missile you want is on its way.

Brahmost fits its intended roll just fine. Whether the doctrine it was built to fulfill is a good doctrine is guess work until we see a real naval battle somewhere.

microwaves dont in and of themselves generate heat so there is no way that the screen in a microwave is a heat absorbing RAM, whether it is a RAM or not. The heat is generated only when microwaves come into contact with atoms that are sufficiently poorly bonded such that the frequency of the microwave causes them to vibrate. In the case of the microwaves we all know the frequency they emit is optimized for water molecules. These vibrations create heat. Metals, have free moving electrons and are very eager to lose electrons. Microwaves cause metals to emit these electrons and thus you get sparks and crazy effects when you put metals in a microwave. Microwaves typically will not pass through metal and the metal itself will usually not get hot. Certain compounds like ceramics that form complex typically ionic lattices, are highly resistant to such forces too. The lattice structure will resist such vibrations very well. Ceramics are also famed for their very low thermal conductivity even if you ignore the rest of the chemistry. So you can put them in a microwave for a month and they will never get hot. This is why those microwave safe plates dont get hot. So “heat absorbing RAM” is at the minimum some poorly worded “phraseology” when talking about microwaves.