India is continuing its efforts to develop next-generation hypersonic weapons, with the BrahMos-2 hypersonic missile emerging as one of the most ambitious future projects under the India-Russia BrahMos Aerospace partnership.
BrahMos-2 is envisioned as a much faster successor to the existing BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The proposed missile has been associated with a target speed of up to Mach 8 and a potential range of around 1,500 kilometres. If these targets are achieved, the system would provide India with a significantly faster long-range precision-strike capability.
A major difference between the existing BrahMos and the proposed BrahMos-2 would be its propulsion technology. BrahMos-2 is expected to use an advanced scramjet engine, designed to support sustained flight at hypersonic speeds. Operating above Mach 5 presents major engineering challenges involving propulsion, thermal management, aerodynamics and guidance.
India has been making progress in these critical technologies through indigenous research. In May 2026, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully tested an actively cooled full-scale scramjet combustor for more than 1,200 seconds. The test represented an important milestone in the country’s efforts to develop technologies for future hypersonic systems.
The development of BrahMos-2 could eventually give the Indian armed forces a weapon capable of reaching targets at very high speed while reducing the reaction time available to an adversary. Such a capability could have particular importance in maritime operations and long-range precision strikes.
However, BrahMos-2 is still a developmental programme, and reported figures such as Mach 8 speed and a 1,500-kilometre range should not be considered confirmed operational specifications until the system completes development and testing.
The BrahMos programme is already an important component of India’s missile capability, with the existing system deployed across the Army, Navy and Air Force. The future BrahMos-2 could take the programme into the hypersonic domain and strengthen India’s efforts to build advanced, indigenous precision-strike technologies.
With continued progress in scramjet propulsion and other hypersonic technologies, BrahMos-2 could eventually become a major component of India’s next-generation long-range strike architecture.