IAF’s 40 Sukhoi fighters now armed with BrahMos missiles: Aerospace co-director
NEW DELHI: Around 40 Su-30MKI fighters of the Indian Air Force have been integrated with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, BrahMos Aerospace co-director Alexander Maksichev has informed. These 40 jets, armed with the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, are among a total fleet of 270 Sukhoi-
By Surendra Singh
NEW DELHI: Around 40 Su-30MKI fighters of the Indian Air Force have been integrated with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, BrahMos Aerospace co-director Alexander Maksichev has informed.
These 40 jets, armed with the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, are among a total fleet of 270 Sukhoi-MKI aircraft with the IAF that will provide India with a long-range strike capability.“The rearmament of Su-30MKI aircraft with BrahMos missiles is continuing.
At present, 40 Su-30MKI fighters are already armed with these missiles,” Maksichev told Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik at the Fleet 2026 International Maritime Defence Show.
He stressed that Operation Sindoor against Pakistan had confirmed the superior performance of BrahMos-armed Sukhois.The air-launched BrahMos (2.5 tonne), a modified version of the missile jointly developed by India and Russia, is lighter than the land variant (3 tonne) and has been specially adapted for carriage by the Su-30MKI after extensive aircraft modifications and testing.
The heavily-modified aircraft will allow the IAF to dominate both land and sea battlefields with pinpoint accuracy.
Su-30MKI, which is the operational backbone of the IAF combat fleet, has an unfuelled maximum range of 3,000 km.
With newly-inducted BrahMos having an extended range (nearly 450 km), the 40 Su-30MKIs will have a very long strike capability.Russia and India are also working together to upgrade the BrahMos cruise missiles and design hypersonic weapons, Aleksandr Leonov, director general and chief designer at Russian hypersonic missile maker NPO Mashinostroyenia said.
BrahMos Aerospace, in collaboration with DRDO is also working on the next-generation BrahMos-NG. “The next-generation air-launched supersonic cruise missile will be ready by 2028–2029, Maksichev told Sputnik. “It will be smaller, lighter, and far deadlier — with AI-level guidance and next-gen avionics,” he said.The Russian-Indian BrahMos project was launched in 1998, with serial deliveries commencing in 2024.