NEW DELHI, September 8. /TASS/. The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace is moving ahead with plans to expand production capacity and lower costs, Deputy CEO Chilukoti Chandrasekhar told Russian journalists.
"We are working on that. The Russian side and the Indian side, both of us, are working to reduce the cost of the missiles so that more export orders can be honored at the same time. To augment the requirements for export as well as for our own need — for our own armed forces — we need to augment our production facilities also. We are working with our Russian partners to augment this facility," he said in response to a question from TASS.
According to Chandrasekhar, more than 1,000 missiles have been produced and over 100 flight tests carried out during the joint venture’s 25 years of operation. He added that efforts are also underway to explore new export opportunities in friendly countries.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh previously stated that at least 14 countries have expressed interest in purchasing the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile following its successful use in the Indian Armed Forces’ Operation Sindoor, launched in response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam (Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir). On the night of May 7, Indian forces struck nine terrorist-related targets in Pakistan and in the part of Kashmir under its control. Pakistan carried out retaliatory strikes, and on May 10 both sides agreed to a ceasefire and to consider reducing troops along the border.
BrahMos was jointly developed by Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization. In 1995, the two countries established BrahMos Aerospace to manufacture the missile. Today, the system is available in land-, sea-, and air-launched versions and is in service with all three branches of the Indian military, as well as with the Philippines.