India has started delivery of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to the Philippines. On April 19, 2024, India has delivered the first batch of BrahMos missiles to Manila, which has caused uneasiness in the Chinese military, as there is tension between China and the Philippines over the Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippines has acquired BrahMos missiles from India to counter China’s aggression and enhance its defensive capabilities.
In the year 2022, an agreement of $375 million was signed between India and Philippines. The deal includes three missile batteries, operator and maintainer training and an Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) package. Each missile battery typically consists of three mobile autonomous launchers with two or three missile tubes with requisite tracking systems. The BrahMos cruise missile given to the Philippines has a range of 290 kilometers. This is the export variant of BrahMos.
BrahMos missile is considered one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world. India has all three versions of this missile, i.e. ground-launched, sky-launched and sea-launched. It has been built jointly by India and Russia and hence it is named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Muskwa of both the countries. It is based on Russia’s P-800 Onyx.
The weight of BrahMos missile is about 3000 kg, and the maximum speed is up to Mach 3. Its range is from 290 to 900 kilometers for different variants of BrahMos. The range is up to 900 kilometers on ship and land platforms and 500 kilometers on air platforms. It can also carry 200 to 300 kg of conventional or nuclear warhead.
India has made the BrahMos cruise missile more powerful and advanced. The new missile has been named BrahMos-NG missile. NG means Next Generation. BrahMos-NG missile is light and small in weight, the weight of BrahMos-NG missile is 1500 kg and its length is 6 meters. Being small and light in weight, a fighter aircraft can carry three BrahMos-NG missiles and fire them at three different targets.
BrahMos-NG is considered very effective at high altitude because BrahMos missile is already considered adept in steep diving, can destroy enemy bunkers on mountains at an angle of 90 degrees.
The speed of this next generation BrahMos missile is Mach 3.5 i.e. 3.5 times faster than the speed of sound and its range is up to 400 kilometers. Being equipped with sea-skimming technology and having a flight altitude of 3 to 4 meters from the surface, the BrahMos missile can dodge the enemy’s air defense and missile defense systems.

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