India's future plans for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile programme include a potential export deal with Vietnam, the development of next-generation and extended range variants and efforts to further increase indigenous content while reducing costs.
Nearly a month after P. Kumaran, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, revealed that discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese President To Lam had covered the possible sale and long-term maintenance of several military platforms, including the BrahMos missile system, BrahMos Aerospace Chief Jaiteerth Joshi has confirmed that export negotiations for the supersonic cruise missile with Vietnam are now in the final stages.
"Export negotiations are in almost final stages with Vietnam, with only minor clearances remaining before finalisation," Joshi said after flagging off the 100th indigenous booster manufactured by Solar Industries India Ltd for the BrahMos programme.
He added that discussions are also underway with several other countries for potential exports.
"We are in talks with several other countries in both eastern and western regions. Once the government approval comes, we will come out on the open forum," he said, according to news agency ANI.
Apart from exports, BrahMos Aerospace is also focusing on reducing costs and increasing indigenous content in the missile system. According to Joshi, value-engineering efforts over the last one-and-a-half years have resulted in significant savings.
He said raw material costs have been reduced by around 24 per cent, while manufacturing and component costs have come down by nearly 10 per cent.
"Overall, the Indian component cost is expected to decline by nearly 20 per cent over the next one to two years," he said.
Joshi also outlined future development plans for the missile programme, including work on the BrahMos-NG and extended-range variants.
According to him, research is also being carried out on lighter missile designs using composite materials. He said the final specifications for these future variants would be determined after design validation and simulation studies are completed, news agency ANI reported.
The BrahMos chief further confirmed that India is in discussions with Russia on increasing production requirements for the missile programme.
"Russia has its own established industry partners. However, they want to increase the requirement as per the present scenario. We are in talks with them," Joshi said.
