India is set to commence the export of ground systems for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile within the next 10 days, with the missiles themselves expected to be shipped to the Philippines by March of this year, according to DRDO chairman Dr. Samir V Kamat. This export deal, valued at USD 375 million, marks India’s largest-ever defense contract with a foreign country. Kamat emphasized the increasing role of exports in the defense sector, noting that approximately Rs 4.94 lakh crores worth of DRDO-developed products have been inducted into defense or received Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC). The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system, a joint venture between India and Russia, is renowned as one of the world’s most successful missile programs, enhancing India’s deterrence capabilities. The system’s next-generation variant boasts smaller, lighter, and smarter dimensions, suitable for deployment on various modern military platforms. So far, a lot of our hull-mounted sonars, lightweight torpedo, we have exported radars, we have now a lot of interested (countries) on Pinaka among others,” the top DRDO official said.
“The developments are now increasingly getting done much faster than earlier. My estimate is, more than 60 per cent or 70 per cent of the inducted products are in the last 5-7 years. This rate is going to increase dramatically as we go ahead,” he added.
The BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile system is one of the most successful missile programmes in the world. As the world’s best and fastest precision-guided weapon, BRAHMOS has fortified India’s deterrence power in 21st century. Designed and developed by India-Russia JV entity BrahMos Aerospace, supersonic cruise missile BRAHMOS has continued to evolve as the most versatile weapon in its genre.