The Indian Ministry of Defence has awarded BrahMos Aerospace a contract to procure additional surface-to-surface missiles.
The contract was signed under the Make in India initiative, with an approximate value of 17 billion Indian rupees ($208 million).
India ordered the weapons to “significantly enhance the operational capability of Indian Navy fleet assets.”
Alongside bolstering the country’s naval forces, the agreement promotes indigenous production of ammunition and critical systems required by the military.
The BrahMos Missile
The BrahMos missile (PJ-10) is a short-range supersonic weapon manufactured by India and Russia.
The ramjet-powered weapon can be used as an anti-ship or land attack cruise missile.
It has a launch weight of 2,200 to 3,000 kilograms (2.4 to 3.3 tons) and can travel 300 to 500 kilometers (186 to 311 miles).
The BrahMos has a speed of Mach 2 (2,450 kilometers/1,520 miles per hour) and is equipped with an internal navigation system and GPS for evading tracking and interception.
India sold PJ-10s to Vietnam in 2016 following its acceptance for the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a multinational export control group overseeing the limitation of missiles and related technologies.
Through the MTCR, the range of BrahMos missile variants sold overseas was reduced to 290 kilometers (180 miles).
The PJ-10’s successor, the BrahMos II, is a hypersonic cruise missile with a speed of Mach 8 (9,800 kilometers/6,100 miles per hour) with an operational range of 1,000 kilometers (629 miles).
BrahMos Aerospace in the Philippines
Earlier this year, BrahMos Aerospace received a contract to deliver the Indian-made missiles to the Philippine Navy.
The $375 million contract was signed to bolster the Philippines’ onshore anti-ship assets amid Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea.