New Delhi: India and the Philippines, on Friday signed a $375 million deal for the sale of the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile to the island nation’s navy. According to government officials, the top defence brass of the Philippines was slated to be present for the event.
As reported earlier, the Philippines had, last month, accepted the proposal by BrahMos Aerospace Limited to supply Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile systems for the Philippines Navy. The contract award notice was uploaded by the Philippines Department of Defence on its official website.
“As head of procuring entity (HOPE), I recently signed the Notice of Award for the Philippine Navy Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile Acquisition Project. Negotiated with the Government of India, it includes the delivery of three batteries, training for operators and maintainers as well as the necessary Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) package. Conceptualized as early as 2017, the Office of the President approved its inclusion in the Horizon 2 Priority Projects in 202,” Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said last week.
Brahmos is a supersonic missile for the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. This universal missile can be launched from ships, mobile launchers, submarines and aircraft. It has network-centric architecture, multiple trajectories, way-point capability and is capable of engaging any kind of land or naval targets beyond the horizon in a minimum deployment time.
Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air Missile Astra, anti-tank guided missile Nag and Brahmos weapon systems are also ready for exports, a list released by DRDO showed. Akash is a surface-to-air missile system which provides short-range air defence and can operate in autonomous or group mode of operation with a range of 3 to 25 km. The Astra missile is a BVR air-to-air that has been integrated with Indian Air Forces Su30 MKI. Other fighter jets will also be integrated with the Astra in the future.
Other countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Indonesia, have also expressed their interest in buying BrahMos from India, to which end discussions are ongoing.