India and Russia are set to export its jointly developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Philippines , a movement that could disrupt Beijing, Given its border deadlock with New Delhi and territorial disputes with other neighbors in the South China Sea.
BrahMos is named for two rivers -- Brahmaputra in India and Moskva in Russia. The missile is manufactured by a joint venture between India and Russia, BrahMos Aerospace, which was established in India in 1998 and is responsible for the design, development and commercialization of the missile.
"All tests of contemporary versions [of the missile] are successful," said Roman Babushkin, Russia's No. 2 diplomat in New Delhi, in a recent online briefing. Babushkin added that Russia and India are "planning to gradually increase the range of these exclusive missiles and, of course, to begin exporting to third countries, starting with the Philippines."
Asked if it had already ordered the weapons, Arsenio Andolong, a spokesman at the Philippine Department of National Defense, told Nikkei Asia that the Southeast Asian nation had inquired about the missile but that the purchase "is still under evaluation." Adding, "It is part of our modernization program to enhance our territorial defense capability."
Last December, the Philippines announced its intention to buy the BrahMos for the army and the air force to reinforce their coastal defences. Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana said the contract would be signed by the second quarter of 2020, which would consist of "two batteries", according to the Philippine national news agency.
A BrahMos missile battery includes three autonomous mobile rocket launcher. BrahMos would be the first weapons system in the Philippines with deterrence capacity, Lorenzana said.
Equipped with stealth technology and an advanced guidance system, the BrahMos can be launched from aerial, land, maritime and submarine platforms and can carry conventional warheads weighing 200 kg to 300 kg. It has a range of 290 km and is supersonic, reducing flight and contact time. Missile velocity makes it difficult to deploy targets. According to BrahMos Aerospace, it cannot be intercepted by any known weapon.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have delayed the purchase and there are reports that the agreement could now be signed early next year.
Earlier this month, New Delhi and Manila hosted an online meeting of their Committee on Bilateral Cooperation, co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of India, S. Jaishankar and Teodoro Locsin Jr., his counterpart in the Philippines. They agreed to strengthen the two countries' commitment to defence and maritime cooperation, particularly with regard to military training, capacity building, goodwill visits and equipment procurement.
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