India and the Philippines are in an advanced stage of negotiations over the sale of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and the order is likely to be placed soon

In another achievement for the Modi government’s defence export push, India is expected to soon get export orders from the Philippines for indigenous BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. The DRDO and BrahMos Aerospace together have been pushing hard for exports of this missile to friendly foreign countries for the last few months.

According to ANI, India and the Philippines are in an advanced stage of negotiations over the sale of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and the export order is likely to be placed soon. The BrahMos missile is produced by an Indo-Russian joint venture and it can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms.

The Indian government’s defence export push comes from the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) stable as it recently bagged orders for ‘made-in-India’ weapon locating radars from the Armenian government. India is likely to get more export orders for the missile system from friendly countries as negotiations are underway at advanced stages with some other nations too. A number of countries including in the Gulf region have shown interest in procuring the missile.

BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile

BrahMos missiles are designed developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by the DRDO and Mashinostroyenia of Russia. The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile can cover a range of 290 km reaching the Mach 2.8 to 3 Mach speed. Meanwhile, the BrahMos- II Hypersonic cruise missile can be deployed to hit the target within a range of 450 – 600 km in a Mach 7 velocity. The missile is currently under joint development by the DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia.

India has already deployed a sizeable number of the original BrahMos missiles and other key assets in several strategic locations along the de-facto border with China in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. The IAF is also integrating the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile on over 40 Sukhoi fighter jets which are aimed at bolstering the overall combat capability of the force.