After securing orders from the Philippines Army and Navy for the BrahMos mobile land-based supersonic anti-ship missile, India is aiming to export the weapon to three other countries in the Southeast Asia region.

“I expect another one or two we will have another three-four countries on board from South East Asia and (the) Middle East. Those countries which are coming in the press – Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,” said Atul Rane, BrahMos Aerospace Managing Director and CEO as quoted in an interview with the Russian news agency, TASS on Monday (Aug. 1). 

While Indonesia has already shown an interest to acquire the India-Russia missile joint project since at least 2018, India’s media FinancialExpress.com reported last month that Indonesia and India are already in the final stage of talks for the acquisition of the ship-launched version of the BrahMos missile.

Unconfirmed reports from Indonesian sources indicated that Indonesia may also have the interest to acquire the mobile land-based version of the BrahMos missile.

Indonesia was previously reported to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ukraine to purchase the Neptune shore-based anti-ship missile in 2020. However, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine which began in February 2022 has made this MoU unlikely to proceed. Recently, Indonesia has also shown interest in Norway-made Naval Strike Missile (NSM) to arm the Indonesian Navy’s KRI Golok (688) of which there are reports that the country is also interested to acquire its mobile land-based version.

Malaysia is reported to show an interest to acquire the ship-launched version of the BrahMos missile. However, recent reports indicated that the country is planning to equip two of its Kedah-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) with NSM missiles instead.

There’s still not much known regarding Vietnam’s interest in the BrahMos missile although it is likely that the country is looking to acquire the shore/land-based version of the system.

Developed since 1998 as a Russia-India joint venture project, BrahMos is a ramjet-propelled, high-supersonic anti-ship and land-attack cruise missile. With a length of 8.4 meters and a diameter of 0.6 meters, the missile carries between 200 kg to 300 kg warhead. It has a maximum speed in excess of Mach 3 and a maximum range of between 350 to 700 km, depending on the launch platform, or about 290 km for the export version.

The name BrahMos is a portmanteau from the names of the Brahmaputra river in India, and the Moskva river in Russia.