The flight range of the Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic missile will be extended to 800 km, a source in the defence industry told TASS at the MAKS-2021 air show on Tuesday.

"There are plans to extend the BrahMos flight range to 800 km at the next stage of its upgrade," the source said.

TASS has no official confirmation of this information yet.

The BrahMos missile had an initial flight range of 280 km. After India joined the missile technology control regime, the missile’s range was extended to 450 km.

As the source specified, the new Brahmos version has "a lot of new items". In particular, it features a new booster.

The BrahMos missile has been developed by Russia’s Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (the town of Reutov near Moscow) and India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The missile’s name comes from the names of two rivers: the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. The missile’s first launch took place on June 12, 2001, from a coastal launcher. The missiles have been produced jointly by India and Russia.

The BrahMos (designated PJ-10) is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world. It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace. It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile and other similar sea-skimming Russian cruise missile technology. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

It is the world's fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service. An air-launched variant of BrahMos appeared in 2012 and entered service in 2019. A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with a speed of Mach 7–8 to boost aerial fast strike capability. It was expected to be ready for testing by 2024.

India wanted the BrahMos to be based on a mid range cruise missile like the P-700 Granit. Its propulsion is based on the Russian missile, and missile guidance has been developed by BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is expected to reach a total order of US$13 billion.

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