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​To Produce BrahMos, India Uses Up to 75% Own Components, russia Likely Uses Its Share to Scale Up Strikes on Ukraine

BrahMos anti-ship cruise missile of russian-Indian production / Illustrative photo from open sources
BrahMos anti-ship cruise missile of russian-Indian production / Illustrative photo from open sources

In the story with the production of BrahMos supersonic missiles in India, there may be a "loophole" that helps the russians to make missiles to bypass Western sanctions

Russian sources write that the russian-Indian project to produce BrahMos supersonic missiles based on the Soviet P-800 "Onyx" missiles, aka "Yakhont", is already approaching its 25th anniversary.

According to the director of the BrahMos Aerospace joint venture Atul Dinkar Rane, at the moment the share of Indian suppliers in the BrahMos project is already approximately 68-75%. But at the same time, as the director of of the BrahMos Aerospace emphasizes, the company must comply with the standard, according to which the cost of imported components (that is, components of russian production in this case) in the final cost of the product should not be more than 50% of the price in dollars.

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BrahMos surface-to-air missile launchers, To Produce BrahMos, India Uses Up to 75% Own Components, russia Likely Uses Its Share to Scale Up Strikes on Ukraine, Defense Express
BrahMos surface-to-air missile launchers / Photo from open sources

At the moment, India owns 50.5% of the shares in BrahMos Aerospace, Russia - 49.5%, and the russians have the right to regulate to whom BrahMos missiles can be sold and to whom not. And this in Russian is called "selling only to countries acceptable to the governments of both countries at the same time."

It is interesting that the head of BrahMos Aerospace did not disclose the volume of export orders for his missiles; assures that the Indian Air Force, Navy and Army have awarded their portfolio of contracts for BrahMos missile variants; and at the same time admits that this type of missile defense system has not become "universal" even for the Indian military, which also uses, for example, the French Exocet missile defense system for its Navy.

Test launch of the BrahMos cruise missile from the Indian Navy destroyer INS Ranvijay, To Produce BrahMos, India Uses Up to 75% Own Components, russia Likely Uses Its Share to Scale Up Strikes on Ukraine, Defense Express
Test launch of the BrahMos cruise missile from the Indian Navy destroyer INS Ranvijay, which belonged to the Soviet Project 61, December 2020 / Photo from open sources

India and the russians consider manufacturers from the USA, China and even Turkey to be competitors for BrahMos. It seems that in reality the Indian-Russian "product" has no "export" success to boast of. Atul Dinkar Rane laments that even the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation does not want to buy the aviation version of BrahMos adapted for launching from Su-30 family aircraft.

At the same time, interestingly, the head of BrahMos Aerospace also says that they work closely with the russian NPO mashinostroeniya (Joint Stock Company Military-Industrial Corporation NPO Mashinostroyenia - a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, Russia) in particular on the topic of hypersonic missiles, in particular within the framework of the BrahMos II project. At least two conclusions follow from all this.

Hypersonic BrahMos-II, To Produce BrahMos, India Uses Up to 75% Own Components, russia Likely Uses Its Share to Scale Up Strikes on Ukraine, Defense Express
Hypersonic BrahMos-II / Illustrative image from open sources

The Russians obviously hoped that if their P-800 Onyx supersonic missile was "repackaged" into the Indian BrahMos, then this "product" would sell better. But here the bet did not work. Because it is known from open sources that currently the only export customer of BrahMos in the "coastal" variant is the Philippines. And the hopes of the Russians to sell this missile to Myanmar still did not come true.

But on the other hand, it seems that the BrahMos project is important for the russian federation because it allows to preserve a "window" for circumventing Western sanctions, which, in turn, allows scaling up the production of missiles for new strikes on Ukraine.

Indian fighter Su-30MKY with BrahMos cruise missile, Defense Express
Indian fighter Su-30MKY with BrahMos cruise missile / Photo from open sources
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