India & Indonesia inch closer to BrahMos deal at defence dialogue

If the BrahMos deal goes through, Indonesia will be the second country to procure the weapon system from India, after the Philippines which has procured three batteries of weapon system in 2022. The missiles procured by the Philippines have a range of around 290 km.

New Delhi has been in talks with Jakarta over the sale of the missile system, made under a joint venture between the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya.

The supersonic cruise missile has been operationalised in all three defence services and played a key role in attacking set targets inside Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

Brahmos Aerospace Private Ltd is looking to export the missile system and its compact next-gen version BrahMos NG to at least 10 countries, including South Africa and West Asian countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt. Work has been underway to upgrade the range of the existing BrahMos missiles from 290 km to 500 km for land attacks and 400 km for ship attacks. Electronic counter-counter measures are also part of the other upgrades being carried out.

During the dialogue, both sides also discussed collaboration in defence medicine and pharmaceuticals, including joint research, technology tran­sfer, and training programmes to strengthen military health resilience, while reaffirming a str­ong foundation of bilateral defence cooperation, including the Defence Cooperation Agreem­ent and the work of the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee.

According to a Defence Ministry statement, both sides reiterated the importance of maintaining a free, open, peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, guided by international law and respect for sovereignty.

“Indonesia appreciated India’s proposal to establish a Joint Defence Industry Cooperation Committee,” the statement noted. Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to a just and lasting peace in Palestine. “Indonesia reaffirmed its readiness to contribute peacekeeping personnel to Gaza under the UN Mandate.”