Raytheon is reported to have discreetly offered to sell the Tomahawk cruise missile to the Indian armed forces. Photo Credit: RaytheonMarch 07, 2009, (Sawf News) - Raytheon is reported to have discreetly offered to sell the Tomahawk cruise missile to the Indian armed forces.
The company has offered to make presentations on the missile to the three services.
Interestingly, the Indian Army hasn't been enthused by the last two tests of the Brahmos Block II missiles that the DRDO wants it to purchase. It considers the January 20 test of the missile an outright failure and continues to reserve judgment on the March 4 test of the missile.
Priced at a mere Rs 3 crore, against the Rs 27 crore price tag of the Brahmos, the Tomahawk would allow the Indian Army to get much more firepower with the Rs 10,000 crore that it plans to invest in raising cruise missile regiments.
Considerably lighter than the 3.0 ton Brahmos, the 1.4 ton Tomahawk packs a 450 kg warhead against the 200 kg warhead of the Brahmos (The airborne version of the Brahmos carries a 300kg warhead). However, because of its higher impact speed, the destructive power of the Brahmos warhead is more.
What makes the Tomahawk potent is its 2,500 km range against the 290 km range of the Brahmos. However, there is a catch! Under the MTCR the US cannot sell India a missile with a range greater than 300 km. Any missiles sold to India will need to have their range restricted.
Under the circumstances it is easy to see why Raytheon thinks it has a chance.
Incidentally, DRDO is working on a Tomahawk clone - Nirbhay Cruise Missile.
Nirbhay (Fearless) is an intermediate-range (1000km) subsonic land-attack cruise missile that is being developed by Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) in Hyderabad since 2007.
A technology demonstration test is scheduled for early 2009.
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