Express News Service
NEW DELHI: In a first, the Indian Defence manufacturing setup has concluded a deal with the Philippines to supply the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile.
Sources confirmed on Friday, January 28, 2022, “The deal for which Philippines Department of National Defence has issued the ‘Notice of Award’ to the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited has been concluded.”
As reported earlier by TNIE, the Philippines had approved a $374.96 million (Rs 2700 crores) contract for the purchase of a shore-based anti-ship missile system from India. The notice was signed on 31 December.
As per the initial deal, the Philippines will get three missile batteries of a missile system that has a range of 290 kilometres and a speed of 2.8 mach (thrice the speed of sound). The deal also encompasses training for operators and the necessary integrated logistics support package, said the sources.
India has been in talks with Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and a few other nations that have shown interest in the system.
The BrahMos missile can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.
India on January 11 had successfully test-fired the extended-range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The missile was test-fired from the Indian Navy’s newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam on the Western seaboard.
The extended-range version of BrahMos was developed after India’s full membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which removed caps on the range of the cruise missile. The plan has been to initially extend the range of attack to 450 km.
