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Philippines Hints BrahMos Deal May Be Delayed, Cites Covid Hit

Plans for the possible sale of the Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines have hit a roadblock with Manila Monday citing budgetary limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Filipino Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has told media in his country that the economic impact of coronavirus has led the government to prioritise its citizens over the cruise missile.

“Because of the pandemic, we lost the budget to procure it. We need to prioritise our citizens instead of the cruise missile, so there are no funds yet,” the Defence Secretary of Philippines.

“Negotiations were underway, it was already in the advanced stages of the procurement process, but it stopped because of funding issue, the procurement process stopped because we no longer had funds for it,” he said.

Roman Babushkin, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Russian Embassy in India, had seen earlier this month that BrahMos Aerospacethe Indo-Russian joint venture (JV) firm manufacturing the missiles is looking at exporting the weapons to other countries, starting with the Philippines.

The statement had come as a surprise to the Indian security and defence establishment, because while talks were underway with the Philippines, the modalities were yet to be worked out.

BrahMos is the only supersonic cruise missile in the world that flies at three times the speed of sound (2.8 Mach). It is much sought-after because it can be used for both coastal defence and ground attack. 

Multiple countries have expressed their interest in acquiring the missiles, but talks were said to be most positive with Vietnam and the Philippines. Such an acquisition would mean a major enhancement in the firepower of the countries, both of which are locked in territorial disputes with the Chinese in the South China Sea.

India is working to extend the range of the BrahMos missile, the weapons that will be be exported will be the ones with a “normal range” of 290 km.

India and the Philippines had earlier this month resolve to strengthen defence engagement and maritime cooperation, especially in military training, as well as in procurement of defence equipment.

This came about after the fourth meeting of the India-Philippines joint commission on bilateral cooperation, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Philippines counterpart Teodoro Locsin Jr

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YATISH MAHAJAN

I am Yatish Mahajan. Defence aspirant, want to wear stars on shoulders. At present pursuing BE in mechanical engineering.

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