The $375-million BrahMos supersonic missile system that the Philippine government has acquired from the Indian government is not covered by the US sanctions against Russia, even if components of its technology came from Russia, the Indian ambassador to Manila told the BusinessMirror.
“BrahMos is a bilateral contract between the Philippine government and the Indian government. Russia has nothing to do with it,” Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran said in an interview at the sidelines of India’s 75th Independence Day celebration in Taguig City on Monday night.
The US has imposed sanctions on Russia for initiating the war against Ukraine. Countries which purchase major defense hardware from Russia are covered by US sanctions too as transactions would allegedly provide financial support to Russia’s war.
Recently, the Department of National Defense had to scrap a deal with Russia for the purchase of 16 MI-17 helicopters for fear of sanctions from the US.
BrahMos cruise missiles, touted as the fastest supersonic missiles, are being manufactured in India by BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s defense research organization, Defence Research and Development Organization, and Russia’s rocket design bureau NPO Mashinostroyenia. The company was created after India sought for long-term defense relationship with Russia to enable India to produce its own missile defense system and lessen imports from Russia.
Kumaran said there had been talks lately about the implication of the US sanctions to the BrahMos contract, but both countries agreed that they could proceed with the P18.9-billion cruise missile deal.
He said it is expected that the initial delivery of the BrahMos Aerospace would start by next year.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi even made particular mention of the BrahMos deal as testament to realization of India’s vision on defense indigenization and exporter of defense platforms.
“Be it manufacturing of electronic goods, manufacturing of mobile phones, today the country is progressing very fast. When our BrahMos goes to the world, which Indian’s mind will not touch the sky,” Modi said in his speech during India’s Independence Day in New Delhi.
Under the contract, Manila will get shore-based anti-ship supersonic missiles from BrahMos. A supersonic missile has a speed that is 35 percent faster than the speed of sound.
BrahMos’ supersonic speed that the Philippines will purchase has a speed of 2.8 Mach or at least almost 1 kilometer per second—the fastest cruise missile available in the world.
The Philippine Marines will get four BrahMos missiles which can be launched anywhere, with a fast deployment of half an hour from the time of detection of intrusion with a range of 2.9 kilometers.
Manila is planning to buy more BrahMos missiles for the Philippine Army in a bid to expand the areas of its defense capability around the Philippine archipelago.
India is facing sanctions from US for the purchase of S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
The US House of Representatives has recently passed a legislation that exempts India from the punitive sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The US Senate has yet to pass a similar CAATSA waiver, before President Joe Biden signs it into law.