India, Russia Test Fire PJ 10 Anti-Ship Cruise Missile

Jane's Defence Weekly | May 15, 2002 | Rahul Bedi

[Stand Watch Listen]

India and Russia on 28 April successfully test fired, for the second time in 10 months, a jointly developed anti-ship cruise missile from the interim test range on India's east coast to a range of 290 km.

Codenamed PJ 10, the 8.4m-long missile armed with a 200kg conventional warhead is configured on the Russian 3M55 Oniks/Yakhont (NATO reporting name: SS-NX-26) medium-range anti-ship missiles and was first tested in June last year (Jane's Defence Weekly 20 June 2001).

Developed by Brahmos, an Indo-Russian company formed three years ago, the missile combines the propulsion system and seeker of the Yakhont with an Indian-developed onboard computer guidance system.

Official sources said the PJ 10 was launched vertically from a container that can be fitted on to a ship, a submarine and after modification, even on to an aircraft.

When launched from a ship, the PJ 10 can attain a speed of around M2-2.5 and a height of 14km. Although it had a pre-set trajectory, a sensor on its head capable of detecting the target can change the course of the missile, enabling it to strike 20km from the initial objective. The missile can also fly at near-surface level, but that shortens its range to 120km, programme officials said.

Brahmos joint managing director Andrey Strakhov said the PJ 10 missile would undergo several more test-flights in Russia and India this year before going into series production. Brahmos represented by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia, plans to supply the new missile to the armed forces of both countries and export it to others.

Each missile is estimated to cost around $2 million per unit and Brahmos plans on annually producing 200 units in both countries. Brahmos is also working on fitting missile on the Su-30MKI ('Flanker)' multirole fighters, of which India has bought 40 and is locally building another 150, and also the Amur-class (Type 667) diesel-electric submarines, the purchase of which Delhi is currently negotiating with Moscow.

[Fish out of Water]

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YAKHONT (SS-N-26) ASCM

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Designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya, the Yakhont ASCM (Anti-Ship Cruise Missile) meets all principal requirements to anti-ship missiles of the fourth generation - low weight and dimensions (eight missiles can be placed in the hull of a slightly modernized Amur Class sub, or it can replace four P-15 Termit [SS-N-2a Styx] anti-ship missiles), employs stealth technology, has supersonic flight speed and a completely independent guidance system based on the fire-and-forget concept.

The missile is 8.9 meters (29.1 feet) in length. It can be launched from ships, aircraft, submarines, or even ground mobile launchers and is fired from a unified encapsulated ampoule - shaped transporter - launching container. Flight speed is at Mach 2.0+, using a kerosense liquid-fuel ramjet, with a terminal run at Mach 2.5. Range is at 300 km in a hi-lo profile or at 120 km at altitudes of 5-15 metres, in a lo-lo profile. A regular mid-course phase of the flight occurs at 15 km. If and when launched from submarines, the vessel must be fitted with 650mm torpedo tubes.

An operational missile designed for hitting complex sea-based and in-shore targets, a vessel armed with the Yakhount can carry out combat operations against warships or even against carrier battle groups. Yakhont's navigation system uses an inertial guidance system based on the present target location data. At a pre-calculated flight point (around 25 - 80 km), a brief turn-on of the homing scanner occurs, resulting in exact determination of target location. After that, the homing system turns on only when the Yakhont leaves the radio horizon and drops its altitude to 5 - 15 metres, i.e. a few seconds before hitting the target. It carries a 250 kg (553 lbs.) warhead.

The Yakhont ASCM on display at the '97 Moscow Airshow

The missile's designers assume, that the enemy would detect the launch of the missile at the distance of 300 km and take measures to destroy it. However, being resistant to jamming, having the flight velocity of 750 m/s and making complex maneuvers during flight, the Yakhont ASCM shall anyway reach the target. There are no effective means of defense against this Russian missile in naval forces of the world.

It is not the high speed or jamming protection that makes Yakhont an advanced weapon system. It's major advantage, not too much advertised by NPO Mashinostroyeniya representatives, is the guidance system which has accumulated all the NPO experience in developing electronic systems of AI (Artificial Intelligence) enabling to fight against single warships (one missile - one ship) or even against a group of warships (a flock against a group). It is salvo launching that shows all unsurpassed tactical capabilities of the Russian weapon.

The missiles allocate and range targets by their importance and choose the attack implementation plan. The independent control system keeps in memory not only of the ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) and ECCM (Electronic Counter-Countermeasures) data, but also the methods of evading the fire of the enemy's air defense systems such as the US' Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System). Having destroyed the main target in a carrier group, the missiles left attack other ships of the carrier group, eliminating the possibility of using two missiles on one target.

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