NEW DELHI, August 1. /TASS/. The Russian-Indian joint company BrahMos Aerospace expects to complete negotiations on the export of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to Brazil and Chile in three to four years, Atul Rane, the company's managing director and CEO, told TASS.
"Latin America may take a little more time, that will be maybe three or four years namely," he said. Rane also listed other countries interested in obtaining missiles: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, South East Asia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia.
Rane also said that in the next three years, orders for missiles are expected to increase "by another $4 billion." "As for exports, $2.5 billion to $3 billion in the next three years. We expect that sort of volume of sales," he pointed out.
The chief executive stressed that BrahMos Aerospace is negotiating with the countries with which Russia has trade relations. "We cannot talk to a country where Russia doesn’t have partnership or a sale," he said, stressing that a country must fall under the category of friendly in order to negotiate with it.
The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is produced by the Indo-Russian BrahMos Aerospace Joint Venture. The missile has been developed by Russia’s Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (situated in the suburban town of Reutov near Moscow) and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization.
The BrahMos missile was test-launched for the first time in 2001. Its different versions are operational in all the three branches of India’s Armed Forces: the Air Force, the Army and the Navy. The Joint Venture is headquartered in New Delhi. The BrahMos missile was named after the Brahmaputra River of India and the Moskva River of Russia.
The first deal worth $375 million for the export of BrahMos missiles was inked with the Philippines in January this year. Under the contract, Manila will get three batteries of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles in the next three years.