According to the Philippines’ defence secretary, the government has completed a contract with India to buy a $375 million shore-based anti-ship missile system to boost its navy.
The Philippines is reaching the completion of a five-year, $300 million ($5.85 million) project to upgrade its military’s antiquated equipment, which includes cruisers from World War II and helicopters from Vietnam.
According to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s Facebook post late Friday, Brahmos Aerospace Private Ltd would deliver three batteries, train operators and maintainers, and provide logistics assistance under the agreement reached with the Indian government.
This first-ever contract to export the 290-km range BrahMos missiles, which India and Russia developed together, would help the Philippines, as well as other ASEAN nations such as Indonesia and Vietnam. “It’s also strategically important in the context of China’s expansionism and strong-arm tactics in the South China Sea,” a source added.
Aside from operator training and the requisite integrated logistics support package, the Philippines will receive at least three BrahMos shore-based anti-ship missile batteries, a lethal conventional (non-nuclear) weapon that travels at Mach 2.8, nearly three times the speed of sound.
It was conceived in 2017, but was postponed due to financing restrictions and the coronavirus.
The new anti-ship system is intended to keep foreign vessels out of the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
In 2018, the Philippines purchased Israeli-made Spike ER missiles for maritime deterrence, making them the country’s first ship-borne missile weapons.
Despite improving relations between China and the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte, Beijing has maintained its claim to large parts of the South China Sea, which yearly moves over $3.4 trillion in goods. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam have all lodged competing claims.
In a 2016 international arbitration ruling, however, the Chinese charges were determined to be without legal merit.
After languishing in the strategically vulnerable position of being among the world’s top three weapons importers for a long time, India is striving to build a strong domestic defence-industrial base and become a big exporter of weapon systems.
The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa are among the countries interested in acquiring the BrahMos missiles, which have become India’s “precision-strike weapon of choice.”
India also plans to sell its Akash missile systems, which can intercept hostile aircraft, helicopters, drones, and subsonic cruise missiles at a range of 25 kilometres, to countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kenya, and Algeria.
