IN A major success for the Government’s plans to increase defence exports, the Philippines has accepted Indian BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited’s proposal worth USD 374.9 million to supply Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile systems for the Philippines Navy. “The Notice of Award has been communicated to BrahMos officials by the Philippines Department of National Defence accepting the proposal worth around USD 375 million,” Government officials said here. The Philippines Government’s Department of Defence has also uploaded the contract award notice on its website. Defence Research Development Organisation and BrahMos Aerospace together have been pushing hard for exports of this missile to friendly foreign countries for the last few months. The Indian Government’s defence export push is coming from the DRDO stable as it bagged orders for a ‘made-in-India’ weapon locating radars from the Armenian Government recently.

 

The BrahMos export order would be the biggest for the country in this field and is likely to propel India amongst the arms exporter countries as more orders for the missile are expected from other friendly countries too. It is in the advanced stage of negotiations with some other nations too. The missile is also getting more capable due to added range and other modern technologies getting incorporated into it. BrahMos chief Atul Dinkar Rane has been working towards enhancing the indigenous content in the missile system and expanding the production base. BrahMos Aerospace is also investing in increasing its research and development to help the private sector domestic defence industry to grow. India has already deployed a sizable number of the Brahmos missiles and other key assets in several strategic locations along the Line of Actual Control with China in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.