In April, the Philippines Navy received its first BrahMos ground launched cruise anti-ship missile, ordered in a US$275 million January 2022 contract and to be employed by its Marines as the Land Based Weapon System (LBWS) in April 2025.
Recently the Philippines Army has indicted its own interest to acquire as many as additional nine batteries of the same while Indonesia is preparing its own acquisition in a US$ 450 million contract. In fact, an Indonesian Team visited the BrahMos headquarters on 27 January. In addition, Indian industry sources indicate that both Vietnam, with its delegation so engaged in 2024, and Malaysia have shown serious interest in acquiring and fielding BrahMos. These fielding’s, along with the existing use of BrahMos by the Indian Army, will make the missile the most numerous ASM supporting the Pacific defence.
Control of the territorial waters is considered one of the bedrocks of national sovereignty and is not only and economic and security necessity but a point of national pride and political necessity. With the vast expanse of the Pacific and both its archipelagos and extended coasts of its various countries the importance of maintaining influence over these waters is even greater. However, both the very nature of their extended ocean geography and the moderate resources available to them complicate their ability to reasonably exert that influence. This is especially the case against larger, more powerful potential adversaries with the intent to aggressively exert their own claims including using intimidation and potentially even through force.
The nature of the People’s Republic of China’s stance in pushing its territorial ambitions have caused these Pacific counties to seek a response. A concept intended to counter the most extreme of these infringements that falls within the means of these threaten countries is referred to as “Anti-Access”. This defence approach is being that is being increasingly adopted by Pacific nations. One of the keys and more economically affordable tools for establishing Anti-Access are Anti-Ship Missiles (ASM). The ASM which is clearly becoming the system of choice is India’s Brahmos.
BrahMos is a supersonic (Mach 2.8) missile with a range of 290 km. Speed it initially achieved through a solid-propellant first stage and then fuel-efficient ram-jet flight to target. Available in versions for launch from land, surface and sub-surface maritime platforms it is fast, accurate and survivable particularly due to its exceptional speed which is difficult for air defences to intercept.
The lethality of the 300 kg warhead of the land launched version is enhanced by the kinetic energy generated by the speed with which it impacts the target. It’s a fire-and-forget guidance also provides for flight paths able to vary from altitudes of 15,000 m to as low as 15 meters above the ground/water in cruise and 10 meters terminal flight.
The land launched BrahMos is highly mobile utilizing multi-axle transporters and can be rapidly redeployed to evade counter strikes. This discrete nature of the BrahMos and its range and lethality are factors, that represent ASMs as a viable counter to even larger naval forces.
In addition, the economics of the BrahMos particularly compared to costs of building and maintaining naval and air forces of equivalent capability make it an ideal investment for these countries. It also is an indigenous and self-controlled defensive deterrent not subject to the potential whims of hoped for allies.
For India, the BrahMos missile has become one of the leading system exports of Indian defence industry.
by Stephen W. Miller
