India has not yet made a major appearance as an arms exporter; most recently, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) attracted attention with its Tejas fighter jet (-> India wants to buy 97 more aircraft) in Malaysia and Argentina (-> Buenos Aires is now buying used F-16s from Denmark) the short end of the stick. Brahmos Corporation, on the other hand, has now completed the sale of its missile of the same name to the Philippines.
The arms deal, which was contractually agreed two years ago, was widely reported in the Indian media, which is likely to have something to do with the ongoing regional rivalries with China. With a range of around 300 kilometers, the Bramhos cruise missiles in the hands of the Philippines ultimately pose a threat to Beijing and its claims to ownership in the South China Sea. Among other things, Mischief Reef, one of the artificially built Chinese military island bases, is now within range of the three Brahmos batteries, each with three launchers, delivered to Manila with Indian C-17s and leased Russian Il-76s. No details were given on the number of missiles delivered.
Big, strong & fast
The Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) advertises the 2.8 Mach Brahmos as the “fastest cruise missile in the world”. However, at 8.4 meters long and with a combat weight of three tons, the Brahmos is also one of the most powerful.
Brahmos (the name combines the first letters of the two rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva) was developed as a joint venture between DRDO (50.5 percent) and the Russian missile manufacturer NPO Maschinostrojenija (49.5 percent). The joint venture responsible for its realization is called Brahmos Corporation.
The design was based on the Russian R-800 Jakhont sea-based missile. Initial tests took place in June 2001 and production began in 2004. Initially, only land- and coastal-based variants and launchers on Indian ships existed. In 2012, the development and delivery of 200 units of an air-to-ground version was ordered for around 1.5 billion euros. They were integrated into 40 Su-30MKIs specially adapted to carry the heavy load in the middle between the engines. Su-30MKI and were approved for deployment in 2020. This version is slightly lighter and shorter, but has the same range as the ground-to-ground/ship variants, as it is already traveling at several hundred km/h. Versions with a longer range and a lighter Brahmos NG for the Tejas are currently being tested.
Interview with the Brahmos director
In 2019, Militär Aktuell in Abu Dhabi spoke with the director of the joint venture, Praveen Pathak, for an in-depth conversation about the status and outlook of the system. According to the report, the Philippines were already interested in Brahmos at the time, and delegations from South Korea, Algeria, Greece, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, Singapore, Venezuela, the UAE, Chile, South Africa and Vietnam also received briefings on the system. However, Manila became the first export customer, with a total volume of around 350 million euros.
