New capabilities for anti-shipper applications of BrahMos supersonic missiles

This projectile, which is a product of the consortium of BrahMos Aerospace (a company of Russian NPO Masino-Weapon and Indian DRDO) was developed as a result of the G2G agreement concluded in 1998. The consortium with a budget of US$250 million was created under it. Indusians wanted to secure their interests and as the expected main receiver of missiles took 50.5% of the shares, while the Russians took the others. Initially, Russia supplied 65% of components, completed in India with missiles. Currently, this figure has fallen to 35% and ultimately imports are expected to come from only 15%. BrahMos' 20-year development led to the creation of a whole "family" consisting of variants: ship, for OOP, air, and land. A developmental version of BrahMos II (K) was also created, which in the future could be introduced to the arms not only of the Indian and also of the Russian fleet.

Currently, the missiles of this family were introduced to arm Indian destroyers of types: Rajput/61ME (4 ships), Kolkata/P15A (3 ships), Visakhapatnam/P15B (4 ships), Shivalik/P17 frigate (3 ships), and 3 frigates of the second series of Talwar/11356. In addition, India's land troops equipped them with 2 artillery divisions (40th and 41st Artillery Division) which have 4 missile regiments (861, 862, 853rd and 864th). The Air Force is going to arm the Su30MKI aircraft.

BrahMos missiles have also been selected as weapons for the newly built 17A-type frigate (3 ships), the P75-type OOP, and are intended to be used to reconfigure the first three Talwar frigates, where they will replace Club-S systems. These missiles are also intended to be the main weapon of four further Talwars, ordered by pair at Indian and Russian shipyards.

Against the background of Indian orders, Russian purchases are very small. BrahMos’a has been identified as arming several forward-looking types of ships, or retrofitted units in an unspecified future. Only Russian air force indicated these missiles as the weapons of Su-30SM aircraft.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Oman, Chile, South Africa, Egypt, Myanmar and Brunei have been identified as potential export customers of the BrahMos. A few months ago, Indonesia expressed her interest in this weapon. In recent days, Indian media have reported talks with Thailand. In addition, India proposed to sell the BrahMos along with the Tejas Malaysian fighters.

The next success of BrahMos Aerospace is a decision in recent days to purchase BrahMos's for 2 Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries to replace in service currently used by Mobile Missile Coastal Battery (MMCB) Squadron systems of Soviet type 4K51 Outworld using P15/P20 family missiles. The purchase of these batteries is to be part of a larger plan to modernise the armed forces worth $120,000 crore (about US$1760 million). The batteries alone are expected to cost 1400 crore, i.e. about 206 million USD. New systems are to be deployed on the coasts of the Gulf of Bengal.

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