India’s Next Generation BrahMos Missile Revolutionises Second-Tier Fighter Units’ Offensive Capabilities

The Indian Air Force is expected to receive new deliveries of enhanced BrahMos Next Generation (BrahMos-NG) cruise missiles, after <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/new-facility-joint-russian-indian-cruise-missile" target="_blank">opening a new facility </a>in the city of Lucknow with a capacity to produce 80 to 100 missiles annually. The new variant is considerably shorter and lighter than the original BrahMos air-launched cruise missile, with a weight reduction of close to 50 percent, allowing it to be carried by any fighter class in the Indian fleet. The older BrahMos design <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/serious-threat-to-china-india-s-powerful-brahmos-cruise-missile-gets-combat-clearance-amid-standoff" >received</a>&nbsp;its first fleet release clearance on June 10, 2020, but due to its size can only be carried by the Air Force’s heaviest fighter class <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/india-su30mki-20-years-how-capable" >the Su-30MKI</a>, which is considered the country’s most capable fighter in service. With the Su-30MKI already heavily relied on for a wide range of roles, including air superiority missions and operating as a bomber, the allocation of a portion of the fleet to carry BrahMos missile placed greater pressure on numbers, fuelling calls to expand the fleet from 272 aircraft to 300 or more. The development of the BrahMos-NG variant, however, has the potential to take considerable pressure off the Su-30MKI fleet by allowing second-tier fighter classes in the Indian Air Force to be given greater responsibility for strike missions.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/29/article_6837af1f292457_58690261.jpg" title="Indian Air Force Su-30MKI Launches BrahMos Cruise Missile">Jointly developed by Russia and India, the BrahMos missile has a maximum speed of over Mach 3, and an advanced precision guidance system allowing it to engage mobile maritime and land targets. The new BrahMos-NG variant has a reduced radar cross section to reduce adversaries’ warning times and better evade interception, and replaces the original missile’s mechanically scanned array radar with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar to provide both greater immunity to electronic warfare, and to increase precision. The BrahMos is considered among the most capable high speed air launched cruise missiles in the world, and has the potential to revolutionise the strike capabilities of the Indian Air Force’s Tejas and MiG-29 fighter units. Although both fighter classes suffer from limited ranges relative to the Su-30MKI, the range of the BrahMos missile itself, and the proximity of many sensitive targets in Pakistan in particular to Indian airfields, allows the Tejas and MiG-29 to remain highly viable as delivery platforms.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/29/article_6837af448b4051_87827266.jpeg" title="Indian Air Force Tejas Lightweight Fighter ">The MiG-29 is a medium weight fighter that first joined the Indian Air Force in 1984, and which the service has continued to procure into the 2020s. The fighters have been heavily modernised with new avionics and engines and modifications to their airframes to bring them to the MiG-29UPG standard. The Tejas is the country’s first indigenous fighter to enter service, and is considered a ‘very light’ aircraft comparable to the Swedish Gripen or Chinese JF-17. While both the MiG-29 and the Tejas are limited in their potentials in air-to-air combat against many more capable fighters such as the <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/pakistani-j10c-shot-down-indian-rafale" target="_blank">J-10C fielded by Pakistan</a>, both fighters can potentially play a major role in future clashes by integrating the BrahMos-NG. With Pakistan reported to have prioritised targeting storage facilities for BrahMos missiles in recent border clashes with India, the BrahMos arsenal was previously thought to be a leading concern for its armed forces. The operationalisation of the BrahMos-NG variant will further considerably increase this threat with a more capable missile that is much more widely used. With relatively few countries fielding heavyweight fighters comparable to the Su-30MKI, the development of the BrahMos-NG has the potential to also significantly increase the missile class’ appeal to foreign clients. As both the Tejas and the MiG-29 have variants deployed from Indian Navy aircraft carriers, the compatibility of the new missile with these lighter fighters is also expected to lead it to be considered for integration into the service’s carrier air wings.&nbsp;