MOSCOW - The range of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, produced jointly by Russia and India, is planned to be increased to 500 kilometres (311 miles) from 400 kilometres, Alexander Maksichev, the managing co-director of the BrahMos Aerospace company, told Sputnik.

"We will come to hyper-sound via an increase in range. We have already confirmed 400 kilometres, in order to increase the range to 500, it is needed to increase the speed. Now the missile flies at speeds of 2.8 mach. We will achieve the speed of hyper-sound through modernisation, it is more than 4.5 mach," Maksichev said.


Last month, Maksichev told Sputnik that the serial production of BrahMos cruise missiles had started in March.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. The company is producing the world's fastest cruise missile BrahMos, named after Brahmaputra and Moscow rivers.