@
The Deterrent
Not really. Each Brahmos costs
$5 million.
Half the reason we are building Nirbhay is because we cannot afford to launch Brahmos in mass numbers.
It is too expensive to be used constantly.
We have
already ordered $2 Billion worth of Brahmos between the 2 services(IA and IN). The third service is yet to place its orders. You do the maths.
Nirbhay will cost around $1.5 million per missile. Even that is expected to come down with serial production as its built entirely in India unlike Brahmos which has Russian built parts which means price inflexibility.
For each Brahmos, we should be able to afford around 4 Nirbhays(at series production cost). Which means that mass volleys can be fired daily in war.
Brahmos would only be used on High Value-Time Critical targets.
Now if we build a hypersonic long range CM - around 1000kms, the cost would undoubtedly be more than $5 million. By how much? I would not speculate.
But to be game changers, you need to have them in mass numbers regardless of how good the technology is - The supersonic LRCM would be in limited numbers.
Agni IV is a TD. Not a deployement missile. Kinetic is right. It will happen in the future, not right now.