India to export BrahMos missile to Philippines Worth $375 Million – Burning Issues

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Philippines To Buy BrahMos Anti-Ship Missiles For Coastal Defence

New Delhi is also talking to Vietnam and Indonesia about buying the supersonic cruise missiles as part of its efforts to ramp up arms exports
India sees stronger defence ties with ASEAN and South China Sea claimant states as sending a signal to Beijing

The Philippines has placed a US$375 million order with India for supersonic cruise missiles jointly developed with Russia, boosting Manila’s naval capabilities in the face of growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.
The deal is also seen as a breakthrough for Delhi, as it works to export arms to regional partners, while reducing its dependence on arms imports.
The BrahMos is one of India’s most advanced missiles – it has a range of 290km and travels at 2-3 Mach, or nearly one km per second – and has been inducted in all three arms of the Indian military since 2005.
It has been made compatible with different platforms, from a warship to a submarine to a fighter jet and even a land-based launcher. The Philippines will be the first country to purchase the missiles.
Indian media said the Indian Army had deployed BrahMos missiles along the country’s disputed border with China last year, amid an ongoing troop stand-off.

An extended range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired by India from the Indian Navy’s newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam
“Advanced sea to sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam.

Missile hit the designated target ship precisely

The test took place around the time that India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was expected to travel to Vietnam to mark the 50th year of both countries establishing diplomatic ties
“Such a sale would reflect not only a certain level of mutual strategic comfort and trust [between both countries], but also the mutual desire to deepen defence and security engagement, including enhancing military interoperability,” Koh said.

The Philippines has a security alliance with the US, and is the largest recipient of American arms in the region.
BrahMos was a good “security anchor” for New Delhi as it sought to become an arms supplier for the Asean region.
India is also in talks with Vietnam and Indonesia for the sale of the same missiles, and is also exploring the sale of other military equipment, including its surface-to-air Akash missiles to Hanoi.
An Indian manufacturer, Larsen & Toubro, is currently making high-speed patrol boats for the Vietnamese Coast Guard to deploy in the South China Sea.

India to get hold in East asia

For India, the deal with Manila and the slew of negotiations with other Asean partners is part of a broader shift in India’s approach to the region.
New Delhi had long been reticent about seeking stronger defence ties with Asean countries involved in the South China Sea dispute with Beijing – besides the Philippines and Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia are also claimant states.
Analysts said the India-China border stand-off at the undemarcated Line of Actual Control since May 2020, that has shown no signs of resolution, had changed the calculus for New Delhi.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also hoping that an uptick in arms sales will help it reach its target of US$5 billion in defence exports by 2025.
In the financial year that ended March 2021, the country’s defence exports totalled US$1.13 billion.
BrahMos Aerospace, the joint venture between the Indian government’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has a 50.5 per cent stake, and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia, which serves the Russian military, has been focusing on upgrades to the missile.
Besides the advanced sea-to-sea variant of the missile having an extended range, BrahMos Aerospace has said that an upgraded version of the land-based missile system, with a range of 500km, is ready.
Indian authorities are also testing a hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, which can travel at speeds of more than 5 Mach. In addition, news reports in the Indian media have said that Indian authorities are test-firing new versions with a range of more than 1,100km.
Defence Minister Singh laid the foundation stone for a 200-acre BrahMos manufacturing centre in the northern city of Lucknow. When it is completed in three years, it will be able to produce 80 to 100 BrahMos NG (next generation) missiles each year.
All these improvements to the BrahMos are essential for the Indian Navy as well, if it wants to match, and compete with, China’s navy in the Indo-Pacific
extended-range advanced BrahMos at least would help bridge this gap for the Indian Navy,