thx Guys. You are educating me. I understand the BM missile part, now assuming war breaks out. I am a civilian so please excuse me if I am asking very basic question. I am kind of visualizing how I see wars will be executed. Here is what I feel. If war breaks out
Now next things comes to my mind is CM, with Bramhos range is 299 KM so it can only hit border areas and cannot strike deep.
I think you are right - in a war situation, given that BM are not an option - if you want to hit strategic targets like bridges, airfields, etc, you only have 3 choices:
1: either do a precision airstrike(the old-fashioned way.....very risky)
2: use cruise missiles like the brahmos, tomahawk, etc(but they are range/payload limited)
3: use a drone attack like the Predator, Reaper, etc( which currently only the US has battle tested drones - also limited by range/payload)
Bottom line for a country like India is that if you want to punish an errant neighbour for their bad behaviour without resorting to air-strikes, then you have to go with cruise missiles with all kinds of GPS/satellite guidance to hit your targets accurately. Thats why I think India has put so much effort into the Brahmos. The range can be extended but I think they keep it under 299 for the MTCR compliance.
But in a real war situation, who gives a crap about MTCR.....I am sure India will try to extend the range of Brahmos to reach as much of Pakistan as possible.
One thing that really puzzles me is why more countries have not developed drone technology. The US Predator drones are kicking the crap out of Taliban/Al Queida in the Pak border. If anything, the US experience proves how effective these things are in the counter-insurgency fight.
Despite all this - i dont think there is a single country outside of the US that has really taken this technology to its limit. The Israelis have something but it certainly does not look like the Predator, and I think that India too has something but it does not appear to be anywhere near maturity.