India will begin the export of ground systems for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the next 10 days while the missiles of the system would be sent by March this year, DRDO chairman Dr Samir V Kamat said on Thursday.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation chairman, in an interview with ANI, said the first set of BrahMos missile systems is expected to reach Philippines by the end of March. “The ground systems should be sent in the next 10 days, the missiles will hopefully go by March (to Philippines),” Kamat said. BrahMos missiles export to the Philippines is the biggest ever defence export contract signed with any foreign country by India.
India had signed a deal with the Philippines worth USD 375 million in January 2022 for the supply of shore-based anti-ship variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. In an interview with ANI, the DRDO chairman said that exports are going to play a significant role in the defence sector. “I am sure over the coming years exports are going to become a very important part of our portfolio,” he said. “So far, a lot of our hull-mounted sonars, lightweight torpedo, we have exported radars, we have now a lot of interested (countries) on Pinaka among others,” the top DRDO official said.
He said that approximately Rs 4.94 lakh crores worth of DRDO- developed products have either been inducted in defence or have received Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC). “The developments are now increasingly getting done much faster than earlier. My estimate is, more than 60 per cent or 70 per cent of the inducted products are in the last 5-7 years”. The BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile system is one of the most successful missile programmes in the world.