New Delhi [India], February 2 : At a time when the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile was successfully used to target the Pakistani air bases by the Indian defence forces, DRDO chief Dr Samir V Kamat said the new Long range Anti Ship Hypersonic Crusie Missile (LRASHM) was more capable than the Indo-Russian joint venture missile systems and can prove to be a game changer for the Indian armed forces.
Speaking to ANI, Dr Kamat said: "We have carried out 2 development trials, we are soon going to do a third development trial. Once these development trials are over, we will offer it to the user for user evaluation trials. Then these missiles should get inducted. We are very confident with this system and it will be a gamechanger for our services."
Asked to compare the LRASHM missile with a longer range and higher speed with the BrahMos cruise missiles, he said: "This will have much more capabilities than our current BrahMos missile because it travels much faster than what BrahMos can and it will have a much higher range. So, it will definitely add to the arsenal of our services.
On the different variants of the LRASHM missile on which the DRDO was working on, he said: "We are also working on the land attack for the same missile but that is slightly at earlier stages than the anti-ship one...We have plans to take up the air launch version but that will be after the land launch or ship launch versions are complete."
The missile was showcased at the Republic Day by the DRDO and is likely to have a big export potential as well.
On new indigenous systems that DRDO is looking to develop in near future, Dr Kamat said "Our focus is going to be on aero-engines. Our focus is going to be on unmanned combat aerial vehicle. We are also looking at working in several deep-tech technologies which will be essential for all our systems going ahead. So, we are looking at quantum techonologies, at AIML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) technologies, advanced materials and these technologies will go into any system that we develop."
Welcoming the allocation for defence ministry in the general budget, he said: "The Budget is very good for the defence sector. Not only has the capital outlay been increased to Rs 1.39 lakh crores for indigenous systems but overall, it has been raised to Rs 2.19 lakh crores which is very positive for development of systems within the country. With respect to DRDO, our capital budget was also increased by 15.6% which is going to help us in developing new technologies as well as new indigenous systems."