BrahMos Missile – Important Lecturette topic

India and the Philippines have entered into an agreement to supply Brahmos Anti-ship Missile to the Philippines. The deal is estimated at $374 million. Philippine Secretary of Defence Delfin Lorenzana and Director General of Brahmos Aerospace Atul Dinakar Rane inked the export deal of the missile.

It is the first major breakthrough of Indigenous Supersonic Missile export. The Philippines has ordered the shore-based Anti-ship variant of the Brahmos Missile. The Missile regiment will be deployed under the Philippine coastal defence regiment of the Philippines Marine Corps. As the world’s supersonic cruise missile, Brahmos will be a strategic asset in the Southeast Maritime region. India will export the three batteries of the BrahMos missile with maintenance, Training and Logistical support.

The Missile is jointly developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Rocket Design Bureau. This joint venture is named as BrahMos Aerospace Ltd. The name BrahMos is formed by the Brahmaputra River of India and Moskva of Russia.

Specification of Brahmos export version

The development of this supersonic missile is based on Russia’s P800 Onyx cruise missile. The Missile underwent a series of trials, marking its first in 2004. Since then, many variants of missiles have been developed. The Missile is already in service with the Indian Armed Forces. The Missile has already been integrated into Kolkata Class and Visakhapatnam class destroyers. The current versions are having 500 km range. The BrahMos-equipped 222 Squadron “Tiger sharks” has also been deployed at Thanjavur AFS to look at India’s Maritime interests in Indian Ocean Region.

The variants of BrahMos missile can be fired from Surface, Ship, Air and Submarine. But the range of the export version would be 290 km to keep under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) restrictions of 300 km.

Presently, India is focusing on exports of these Indigenous Defence Technologies. India is also in talks with its Malaysian counterparts regarding the export of LCA Tejas fighter Aircraft. India also exports the Ammunition, Weapons Spare parts, Explosives, Parachutes, etc. to more than 30 countries across the world. The defence exports of India are controlled by Defence PSUs and Private Defence Manufacturers. Currently, the Shipyards in India are building offshore patrol vessels for Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Mauritius.