A “nervous” India’s decision to deploy BrahMos cruise missiles along the frontier in Arunachal Pradesh poses a threat to China and will have a negative impact on the boundary dispute, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has said. The move is beyond India’s “normal need for self-defence”, complained military naval engineer Cheng Yuyi, who wrote the piece in the mouthpiece of the world’s largest armed forces. However, the piece contended that the BrahMos missile would not be able to penetrate deep into China’s territory because of its 290-km range. It listed what it described as other drawbacks of the missile: “The BrahMos can only attack effectively tactical targets within close range, but is unable to reach targets located far. Secondly, because it is too big, the missile is not suitable to be carried.”The BrahMos is 8.4 metres long and weighs around 3,000 kg.

Source: Hindustan Times August 22, 2016 15:45 UTC