'Can Brahmos be sold to Pakistan?' Missile creator's witty reply to Pak army general's question

BrahMos is a long-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from fighter aircraft, ships, or submarines.

Dr Apathukatha Sivathanu Pillai, hailed largely as  " father of BrahMos", has shared a rather witty anecdote in a podcast where he said how a Pak army general asked him if BrahMos can be sold to Pakistan.

Sivathanu Pillai said that it was during an international arms expo, which was going on in Dubai, that the army general approached and asked him if India would sell its BrahMos missile to Pakistan to which Pillai replied, "'For Pakistan, it would for free of cost'.

India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 25 Indian and one Nepali citizen. The mission targeted and destroyed terror camps in both Pakistan and PoK, which were being used to orchestrate attacks on Indian soil.

The Indian armed forces struck at Rafiqui (Shorkot, Jhang), Murid (Chakwal), Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi) Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian (Kasur). The air bases in Skardu, Bholari, Jacobabad and Sargodha also suffered extensive damage. Radar sites at Pasrur and Sialkot were also targeted using precision munitions.

The BrahMos has been one of the most successful joint ventures in the Indian weapon manufacturing industry, even though a majority of it is produced by the Russian side. The Indian side is working towards indigenisation of the major portions of the weapon system and has achieved success in some areas with support from the private sector industry.

BrahMos, developed jointly in a strategic partnership between Indian DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Russian NPO Mashinostroyeniya, is a stealth cruise missile with a range of 290 kilometre and travels at a speed of Mach 2.8 to 3. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.

Brahmos is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine. At its first stage, the engine brings the missile to supersonic speed and then gets separated.

The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase. Stealth technology and guidance system with advanced embedded software provide the missile with special features.