IAF Equipped More Fighter Squadrons With BrahMos Capable Aircraft For Land Attack Missions Following Chinese Aggression In Ladakh

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has said that IAF has equipped more squadrons with BrahMos-A supersonic cruise missile-equipped fighters, after the Chinese aggression in Ladakh.

The IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, was speaking at the BrahMos User Meet, 2023.

He said, "As the situation unfolded on the northern borders three years ago, we realised that the potent weapon can be used very effectively for land attacks. We therefore equipped more squadrons with these BrahMos modified aircraft".

"Today, we have BrahMos-modified aircraft in almost all squadrons across the IAF," the IAF Chief further said.

It is worth noting that, until now, the IAF had only 40 Sukhoi-30s, capable of carrying 'BrahMos-A' Air-launched supersonic cruise land-attack missile.

It's only in January 2020, that the IAF inducted its first 'BrahMos-A' equipped squadron '222 Tiger sharks' at Thanjavur Air base in Tamil Nadu.

However, according to ACM Chaudhari, after the Galwan clash of June 2020 and the resulting border standoff, IAF equipped more squadrons with Brahmos capable aircrafts.

It is unclear, how many aircrafts were modified for equipping BrahMos missiles.

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, which is capable of conducting anti-ship, as well as, land-attack missions on enemy targets. The missile has a maximum speed of 2.9 Mach and carries a warhead weighing 300 kilograms.

BrahMos is also modified to be launched from the air using Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets. The Air-lanched variant is called BrahMos-A, which weighs around 2.5 tonne.