India's BrahMos Missile: Is Philippines The Only Country To Buy It?

In March 2021 Philippine Department of National Defence announced that they had signed an ‘implementing arrangement’ for the ‘procurement of defense material and equipment from India. However, the statement did not reveal whether BrahMos is included in the deal. But later, Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana reported that his country is buying the missile from India.

The local Philippine news reported that India offered a $100 million credit line to the Philippines to procure a range of Indian weapon systems, including the BrahMos missiles. It is not believed that the loan amount offered by India could be higher.

However, there had been no such statement from the Indian side. Still, there has been a buzz that Russia and India have been planning to export the supersonic missile Brahmos to the Philippines along with other countries.

The Brahmos missile is believed to be technologically advanced equipment that can be launched from ships, submarines, aircraft, and even land. It is an Indo-Russia joint venture and was tested successfully last year October. Indian Navy used the naval version of the missile to test-fire in the Arabian sea from a stealth destroyer indigenously built. 

The air-launched version was tested after few days in the Bay of Bengal from the Sukhoi fighter aircraft by the Indian Air Force.

Recently several other countries have shown interest in buying the Brahmos missile from India, which includes the Gulf region countries.

Based on the tension that India has been facing with China along the borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Defence has deployed a sizeable number of supersonic missiles along the LAC. Along with other key assets, the BrahMos is placed in strategic locations near the border.

The Indian Air Force has also started integrating over 40 Sukhoi jets the cruise missile to enhance the combat capability of the country’s defense.

BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile and has the fastest operating system in the world in its class. Last year, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) extended the missile range from 298 km to 450 km.

In the last week of November 2020, the defense forces were also scheduled to undertake multiple missile testing on various targets on the Indian Ocean. The purpose was to see its functioning capacity and improve its performance.