TSAMTO, November 16. India and the Philippines will sign an agreement to purchase BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missiles developed by the joint Indian-Russian enterprise BrahMos Aerospace Limited for the armed forces of the Philippines in 2021.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the governments of India and the Philippines are considering signing the agreement during a meeting scheduled for 2021 (no specific date specified) between Indian Prime Minister Narendra modi and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Officials from BrahMos Aerospace will visit the Philippines to discuss the remaining details of the deal in December.
Roman Babushkin, Deputy head of the Russian mission at the Russian Embassy in India, was also quoted by the Hindustan Times during a media briefing as saying that "all tests of modern versions of BrahMos were successful. They were conducted mainly to increase the range of the missile. Its export to third countries begins, starting with the Philippines."
Recall that the Minister of national defense of the Philippines Delfin Lorenzana confirmed the decision regarding the purchase of BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missiles developed by the joint Indian-Russian enterprise BrahMos Aerospace Limited in December 2019. The signing of an intergovernmental contract for the purchase of two BrahMos batteries for the Philippine Coast guard was originally scheduled for the first or second quarter of 2020, but the completion of negotiations was prevented by restrictions imposed in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. Each battery will include three mobile launchers with two or three missiles on each.
The first new missile systems are expected to enter service with the 1st land-based Missile System Battery (1LBMS Btry), which was formed in October 2019 at Fort Magsaysay. According to the Hindustan Times, the division's personnel will be trained in the near future, and all the necessary equipment will be purchased by 2024. All complexes are expected to reach full combat readiness for their intended use by 2028.
New Delhi offered Manila a $ 100 million credit line to Finance the purchase. However, the Philippine authorities have also been exploring the possibility of purchasing missiles in two stages using their own funds, which can be allocated from their own budget.
As already reported by TSAMTO, the coastal missile system based on the BrahMos missile is being purchased by the Philippine Navy as part of the SBASMS (Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile System) project, which is planned to be implemented in the second stage of the " Philippine armed forces modernization Program "("Second horizon"), planned for 2018-2022.
Initially, according to the documents of the Second Horizon phase, the SBASMS project planned to purchase about 7 batteries of mobile coastal anti-ship missile systems with an estimated budget of 18.9 billion rubles. pesos ($354 million).
