“Everyone is interested in BrahMos,” CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, Atul D Rane told The New Indian Express on Tuesday

Bangalore: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi set an ambitious target of $ 5 billion to be achieved for India’s defence exports by 2024-25 from the current $ 1.5 billion, the BrahMos supersonic missile alone has the potential of achieving $ 3 billion by 2026.

BrahMos Corporation, which specialises in supersonic cruise missiles, is all set to spearhead India’s export push as many countries especially those in South East Asia and the Middle-East have shown a keen interest in acquiring the made-in-India missiles designed and developed jointly with Russia.

The Indo-Russian Joint Venture which has significantly enhanced the war-fighting capabilities of the Indian armed forces, will start exporting the missiles to the Philippines by the end of 2023 and is confident of getting more export orders.

“Everyone is interested in BrahMos,” CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, Atul D Rane told The New Indian Express on Tuesday. “The whole world looks at us, but we can only sell to countries agreeable to India and Russia. Whole of South East Asia is approaching us. The Philippines came on board first. Middle-East is very interested.”

Rane, who is also Outstanding Scientist, Director General (BrahMos), Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), said that in some cases the talks are in advanced stages. He hopes to take it forward during his visit to IDEX (The International Defence Exhibition and conference) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next week.

The Corporation is bullish about the export potential of the missiles known for striking targets at supersonic speeds of up to 5-7 Mach (times the speed of sound) with precision. “BrahMos alone may be able to do around $3 billion by 2026,” said Rane.

“PM has set a tough target, but we are making it tougher for ourselves. Why not? Take it as a challenge,” he said. BrahMos with a maximum range of 300 km is the export variant for land-, sea-, and air-based complexes.

HAL's Hands Full With Rs 84K Crore Order Book

The order book of HAL is full with orders of Rs 84,000 crore while ano­ther Rs 50,000 crore of orders are in the pipeline. HAL CMD CB Ananthak­rish­nan said they are focusing on res­earch and development to come up with more products. On the export front, Egypt and Argentina have shown interest in the homegrown TEJAS even as HAL is also trying to push the deal with Malaysia, despite some setbacks.