A deal worth USD 374 million has been inked between the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd and the Phillipines. The deal is for the shore based anti-ship variant supersonic cruise missiles.
This is the first time India has a deal for exporting a missile which has been made in India under an Indo-Russian Joint Venture.
The negotiations of exporting BrahMos Missile to one of the Asean countries had been going on for a while. The negotiations with Vietnam which started back in 2016, are also in an advanced stage. That could be another country in the region to import BrahMos missiles from India soon.
In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express Online on Friday (January 28, 2022), Atul Dinkar Rane, CEO & MD BrahMos, indicated that several countries are in talks with India. And which country will be the next? “We will do as per the government’s decisions.”
“In 2018, negotiations with the country had started. The deal is for USD 374,962,800 & in their local currency for 19,500 billion Pesos. We cannot reveal the numbers of what is being exported. As per the contract, we will also be providing training, maintenance, repairs too,” Mr Rane added.
India will also provide Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) package as per the contract. And these missiles are going to be part of the coastal defence regiment of the Philippine Marines. They will be the main users of this strategic defence capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Due to that country’s budgetary constraints as well as the global lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, the deal between the two countries got delayed.
According to the BrahMos CEO & MD, “The contract signed today is between the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd and the Department of National Defence of Philippines, their equivalent of Ministry of Defence, under the umbrella agreement signed between the two countries earlier.”
